


naruto short fic tumblr fills

by nirejseki, robininthelabyrinth (nirejseki)



Category: Naruto
Genre: F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 09:29:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 92
Words: 23,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18870445
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/nirejseki, https://archiveofourown.org/users/nirejseki/pseuds/robininthelabyrinth
Summary: a collection of tumblr replies that I deem too short to be their own fic - flash fics, meme fills, etc.5/18/19 - "fake fic titles"





	1. In the Deep

**Author's Note:**

> The first set of posts are "fake fic titles", where someone prompts a title and I write either a fic summary or (more often) a single scene. They start small, then get increasingly more elaborate as I start losing discipline.

**Title: In the Deep**

This is definitely the name of a story about Tobirama meeting and/or becoming a deep sea monster/eldritch creature from the unknown.

He’s gone out to Uzushio to set up Hashirama’s marriage for Mito, and, unsurprisingly as a suiton user, Tobirama obviously can’t say no when a few of the people who live there offer him a chance to go out with them on their boat while they go fishing, except a hurricane comes unexpectedly and destroys the boat, scattering all of them. Tobirama, who’s known a jutsu that lets him breath underwater for what feels like his whole life, doesn’t drown, but tries (unwisely) to swim back towards shore instead of conserving energy - but he’s lost and he doesn’t know where he is and eventually he gets caught up by a riptide and pulled down, down, down -

A few days later the few Uzumaki who managed to cling to flotsam long enough to signal for help (the way you’re supposed to do it) have returned home and are begging Hashirama's forgiveness because while it’s not their fault, it was their idea to go out and they lost his brother in the process, except Hashirama blinks at them and goes “What are you talking about? He’s fine. He’s just in the other room. Hey, Tobirama, come back out here.”

And Tobirama comes out

but there’s something

_wrong_

inside his eyes

Something that feels a lot older and vaster than a mainlander kid who’s still a teenager.

And everyone is suddenly very afraid


	2. Listen to the Fires Screams

**Listen to the Fire’s Screams:**

Fic summary: Someone decides to take out the Uchiha once and for all by corrupting one of them into blaming their clan for all the death they’ve incurred over the years, leading to them locking all the doors and setting the entire compound on fire with Amaterasu. The Senju see smoke coming from their traditional enemies' home grounds - a LOT of smoke - so Hashirama and Tobirama decide to break tradition and trespass to find out what’s going on, even though it might be a trap, only to realize what’s happening and immediately run in to save whoever they can. Everyone is very traumatized. Pairings tbd, but there is lots of “please don’t leave me” bedsharing between former enemies and nightmares and MASSIVE culture clashes as the two clans try to live together without any peace treaty (or separate “districts”) to make things easier for them.

**Listen to the Fires Scream:**

Fic Summary: The Uchiha are very standoffish and reserved until they become VERY LOUD. five times in which various other people are extremely weirded out by this and one time they find it extremely endearing.


	3. All You Have Is Now, Fortune Favors the Brave, and Dying By Inches

**All You Have Is Now:**

Fic summary: There’s a tree in a small grove that Tobirama goes to water every day. Sometimes, if he’s lucky, Hashirama even comments on his stories of how running the village is going.

**Fortune Favors the Brave:**

Fic summary: all the reasons why impressing a luck spirit is just as much trouble as pissing one off: a story by Senju Tobirama

**Dying By Inches:**

Fic summary: Tobirama, annoyed by his brother’s ridiculous emotional pleas about how they have to have peace to stop the children from dying, decides to shut him up by doing the math about childhood attrition rates historically vs. presently, only to realize that the number of children dying has gone up astronomically - far beyond what you’d expect , and far more than other clans even if they have similar rivalries. He decides to present his findings to…Izuna, who is the only other mathematically minded person he knows, and the two of them (who still hate each other like burning) decide to figure out who is killing Senju and Uchiha kids.


	4. Herein and Therein

**Herein and Therein**

Fic Summary: The Senju and Uchiha have an agreement in principle to make peace and it’s everything Hashirama and Madara dreamt of. The only thing they need to do now is write the treaty, but that can’t be that hard, right?

Enter the lawyers.

(Author’s note: this would be an epistolary-style fic, including both official lawyer-speak negotiation language and private letters going “WTF WHY DOES THIS SUCK SO MUCH” and “I would happily bury this entire agreement in your spleen before giving up one inch of self-rule”, depending on who the author of the note is.)


	5. Riven

**Riven**

Fic summary: something happened and now Hashirama and Tobirama are not talking to each other. Madara does not care, he really doesn’t, but everyone else keeps looking at him as if he’s going to fix this so he ends up having to investigate what happened that could possibly create a rift between the two most (dysfunctionally codependent and trust him, he knows what he’s talking about) close brothers he knows.


	6. Golden Days and Silver Nights

**Golden Days and Silver Nights**

Fic summary: the god of the sun likes to make things grow naturally, while his brother the god of the moon (always following his elder brother around) likes to invent brand new things no matter how disruptive. after getting into an argument as to which approach is better, they decide to pick a human at random and make him judge.

Madara, meanwhile, would like to be left the fuck out of this bullshit.


	7. Dancing Echos Secret Eaters

**Dancing Echos Secret Eaters**

this is a mythology/supernatural creature fic. doesn’t matter what fandom, it’s going to have creatures that eat hidden truths out of your mouth and someone unlucky enough to encounter them, only to have to go through a East of the Sun West of the Moon style quest to get their secret truth back lest they lose it (and the hopes that went with it) forever.

also probably lots of oblique references and fusion with to the Narcissus myth and Orpheus/Eurydice.

definitely at least one harrowing of the underworld involved.


	8. Once and Future

**Once and Future**

In which something goes Wrong with the reincarnation cycle of Ashura and Indra.

At some point during the whole Hashirama-Madara friendship/enemy disaster scenario, the reincarnations come into their own - and it turns out that Hashirama is _Indra,_ not Ashura, and Madara is visa versa.

And nobody knows what the hell to do about that.


	9. (Beneath) The Quiet Place

**Fic Title: (Beneath) The Quiet Place**

One day the Senju disappear. the Uchiha look for them, but even the area where their compound used to be is all forest now, without so much as a trace that anyone used to live there. Even the earth is untilled and fallow: pure untouched forest. And, even stranger, the other clans look at them oddly when they ask for information: who are the Senju? they ask. we’ve never heard of them. Even the ones who were allied with the Senju against the Uchiha say the same.

With no one to stop them, the Uchiha slowly begin to take over, and to deal with all the headaches that come with that. The only thing is, though, is that none of them can bring themselves to touch the forest that grows over the land they keep habitually (and mysteriously, to everyone else) calling Senju. No matter how wild it grows. No matter how valuable the wood might be.

And then a few years later, Izuna sees Tobirama in the market place. He knows him at once, of course, and gives chase without so much as a second thought, but no matter how he tries to run, he can’t seem to catch him.

He tells Madara, who’s been - sad, that’s the best way to put, almost incomplete without Hashirama to measure himself against, and Madara is so _happy._ Not even at the thought of finding Hashirama, just at the thought that he’s still out there, that Izuna decides then and there that he’s going to find the Senju, wherever it is that they’ve gone.

Unfortunately for him, he does.


	10. Belladonna Means Beauty Or Death (Guess)

**Fic Title: Belladonna Means Beauty Or Death (Guess)**

Fic Summary: People in the village like to joke that Tobirama spends half of his time running the village and the other half running after his brother to keep him from getting into trouble.

These people are wrong. In fact, Tobirama spends 99% of his time trying to keep everyone - and he does mean _everyone_ , Senju and Uchiha and everyone else - from figuring out that his universally beloved older brother is a serial killer.

(He doesn’t mean to, Tobirama reasons to himself in the few times that he stops to think about it. It’s just that Hashirama doesn’t see people as…people. He sees them more the way other people see plants ripe for the pruning or a rabbit ready for the dinner pot. And Hashirama’s always enjoyed pulling weeds, enjoyed it enough that sometimes the assassination jobs they get as shinobi just aren’t enough, and so he goes out among the civilian villages to hunt…he doesn’t kill children, not anymore; it’s a favor he does for Tobirama. There’s that, at least.)

But no one can know. _No one_. They wouldn’t understand the way Tobirama does. They’d try to lock him away, or hurt him, and that’s just unacceptable. Far more unacceptable than the deaths of a few civilians, or bandits, or stray shinobi…even if it’s not exactly a “few” anymore.

And then someone finds out.


	11. Why ask what you don't want to know?

**Fic Title: Why ask what you don't want to know?**

Fic Summary: Tobirama learned at a young age that it was better not to ask questions.

Questions like: Father, do I have to kill him? Mother, are you okay? Little brother, will you be back soon? Littlest brother, will you stay safe?

Older brother, who do you love more, me or Madara?

(He’s never going to ask that one.)


	12. I Asked For Nothing

**Fic Title: I Asked For Nothing**

Fic Summary: Tobirama believes in his brother’s dreams. He may not understand them, he may sometimes doubt, but he believes in his brother, and so he must believe in his dreams. He will work himself to the bone to give Hashirama peace, to build a village, to let him raise a family, to let him have his best friend by his side, and he’ll never count any of it as cost.

And then one day Hashirama looks at him - really looks at him, the way it feels like he hasn’t for years - and says, “Tobirama, what do _you_ want?”

He doesn’t have an answer.

He tries to shrug off the question, but Hashirama persists.

“You’ve done so much for me,” he says. “Let me do something for you. Just tell me what you want.”

Tobirama can’t bear to tell him that there’s nothing - that everything he was, he gave away already, that a dream as all-encompassing as peace can only be achieved if you give it everything you have, that Tobirama has known himself to be given away by Hashirama for this dream long ago and acted accordingly.

(Hashirama, oblivious and careless and self-absorbed but never stupid, figures it out, much to his horror. Now he needs to find a way to fix this. Somehow.)


	13. There are bones beneath the waves

**Fic Title: There are bones beneath the waves**

It was a mistake.

Tobirama hadn’t meant - he’d been _desperate_. Hashirama in a coma, the terrible injury he had incurred bringing him near to death and exacerbated by his attempts to join the sea battle despite his Mokuton being all but useless on the waves; the ship they’d chartered not being close enough to call for aid from Uzushio, where Mito was waiting with the only thing that would heal Hashirama; Kirigakure having timed their attack perfectly to when Tobirama was already exhausted -

Tobirama had thrown everything he had at them.

_Everything_.

He hadn’t -

The Edo Tensei is a forbidden jutsu because it trades one life for another, using the power of the living soul to resurrect another from their DNA - from their bones. But it takes focus, concentration, _preparation -_ Tobirama had attempted the jutsu combination on the fly only because he’d hoped that raising even a single one of the Kiri nin corpses to fight for his side would shake their morale and cause them to retreat, even if only long enough for Konoha’s heavily depleted crew to replenish their defenses or at least get a little closer to the Uzumaki lands.

He wasn’t expecting the jutsu, which isn’t even suiton, to somehow cause a great wave to rise up.

He wasn’t expecting Kiri’s ship to overturn.

He wasn’t expecting it to happen without a single sound - without a single scream, all those lives gone in an instant without so much as protest.

He wasn’t expecting -

There are bones beneath the waves.

There is clay under the sea.

The creature that he raised with the sacrifice of a hundred souls is larger than their ship - larger than both their ships combined - larger than he can see, and when it rises to the surface, an ocean’s worth of water slides off his back.

It has been asleep for a long time.

It’s not asleep anymore.

The mouth - filled with a million teeth, the smallest taller than Tobirama - gapes open in a terrible smile.

What has he done?


	14. Bravery won't drown

**Fic Title: Bravery won't drown**

Fic Summary: Tired of his brother’s constant supervision and paranoia, Izuna runs away, pretending to be a nameless sailor in the Land of Water. It’s not the life he expected to have, but it’s freedom - from his brother’s constant conflict over peace and Hashirama and his clan’s expectations, from the endless war, from the obligations of being clan heir.  He tries to keep under the radar.

And then one day his ship comes across a ship that’s been destroyed and rescues the people in it - and one of the people there is Tobirama.

Izuna is all prepared to threaten Tobirama to keep him from exposing him (an Uchiha would not be welcome in the Land of Water), but Tobirama appears not to recognize him. He even goes so far as to request a katon user to be his escort - given his status as ambassador from the newly-formed Konoha - and seems to accept Izuna’s cover story at face value, which is good.

Right?

(Cue Izuna getting pulled into a whole mess of Konoha-Kiri politics, scheming designed to create a war, and, of course, I-know-who-you-are-but-am-pretending-I’m-not-because-you’ve-clearly-made-your-decision!Tobirama with does-he-know-or-is-he-fooled-but-how-can-he-not-recognize-me-we-were-rivals-damnit!Izuna road trip with Feelings shenanigans)

 


	15. Winter Blossom

**Fic Title: Winter Blossom**

Fic Summary: Konoha’s first winter festival is a gigantic mess. Only half the houses have been built (which means everyone’s staying in the barrack-like temporary “apartments”), their food situation is uncertain (they SHOULD have enough to survive the winter without rationing… _if_ trade keeps going well…), and they have ten different clans with ten different winter traditions that all clash with each other (and each thinking their own is the “normal” way to celebrate).

Madara’s one consolation for having somehow gotten put in charge of policing the festival is getting to gawk at the ridiculously pretty and highly impractical outfits all the Senju are dolled up in - even if he’d never say so.

**[INSERT BY ARTBYTHEDARKSIDE]**

Tobirama seems to be the only island amidst the chaos. He’s patient and brimming with ideas on how to meld clan traditions into something of a Village festival. He has a superb eye for people and patterns, for all his social skills are apparently utterly appalling.

That’s not to say he isn’t enjoying watching the inhabitants. Madara catches his eye, a dark mass of silks in white snow. For a moment he could swear the Uchiha is looking back at him, but Tobirama knows he’s not the prettiest snowdrop in the field, and turns away.

**[CONTINUATION BY ME]**

Hashirama, trying to balance actual supervising duties with greeting-everyone-and-being-a-charming-figurehead duties, takes a small break from the chaos to ask his beloved and extremely wise wife if taking his idiot brother and equally stupid best friend and LOCKING THEM IN A SMALL SPACE together would be a reasonable response to what is truly an unreasonable amount of pining.

Mito informs him that it would be reasonable, but it wouldn’t work - they’d just force their way out.

Hashirama asks next if setting up a betting pool with the rest of the village about when they will get over themselves is a better idea.

Mito says no.

Hashirama points out that it would be an excellent bonding activity for the rest of the village. After all, who doesn’t like gambling and gossip?

Mito says no.

Hashirama explains that he’s (mostly) sure that their shinobi village can keep a secret from the two of them, so it’s really just for the village’s benefit.

Mito asks if the reason he’s so insistent is that he’s already set up the betting pool.

Hashirama decides it’s time to go shake some more hands.


	16. Tough Leather Leashes

**Fic Title: Tough Leather Leashes**

Fic Summary: the Inuzuka clan are the best trackers in Fire Country (ignore the Hatake’s claim to the contrary, they don’t know anything) and among the fiercest fighters, so of course the newly built Konoha would reach out to invite them to join. They send diplomats to investigate the village for a few weeks, and then agree, subject to one single condition: that the entire village gather together to listen to a presentation given by the Inuzuka. Somewhat bemused by the strange request, Konoha’s leaders agree.

It takes about three hours of listening to a long, rambling dissertation that appears to be about proper animal husbandry and how to care for pets before everybody abruptly realizes that they’re being given a (highly coded) lesson in BDSM 101 because the Inuzuka are JUDGING THEM.


	17. Frozen Roots, Sharpened Claws

**Fic Title: Frozen Roots, Sharpened Claws**

Fic Summary: Nobody in their right mind actually wants a snow-child.

They’re bad luck, especially in the temperate lands of Fire Country. With their skin as white as snow and eyes as red as the blood that was dabbed onto their frozen faces to bring them to life, they herald bad years ahead: short dry summers and long burdensome winters, when everyone starves and people die.

Besides, everyone knows they’re usually created in the madness that follows after a stillborn birth: the mother, unable to let go, trades her community’s safety for the chance to see her child once more. Definitely bad luck.

You can keep them around for a few years, to appease the mother's madness until she can have more children, to see if the snow-child's paleness fades into something more normal, but if it persists…if the stain of their unnatural birth never goes away…

There’s nothing to be done but get rid of it.

Hashirama knows all of this, but he’s not going to let anyone - and he means _anyone_ - hurt his little brother. Even if that means abandoning his clan and running away with him to live in the forest - a plan that would almost certainly fail, but for the fact (then unknown to anybody) that Hashirama has the Mokuton.

(Kawarama is a good heir, Itama a good spare; their parents are very careful with their lives and nobody ever talks about the part of the forest that has grown wild and dangerous and vicious in its own defense. And certainly no one ever _goes_ there, no one but the multitudes of unwanted children, who flock there as if someone is calling their names - but no one serious. At least, not until something goes wrong on one of the Uchiha clan’s missions and Madara and Izuna have no choice but to make there way into the dark forest in an attempt to lose their pursuers…)


	18. The Unworthy Craft Their Own Demise

**Fic Title: The Unworthy Craft Their Own Demise**

Fic summary: Izuna disapproves of his brother’s weird _thing_ with Hashirama. Not only is the other man the enemy, and clearly trying to bait the Uchiha clan into a trap meant to cause their demise, he’s also _married_. Watching his strong noble fearsome brother pant after him instead of agreeing to marry some perfectly acceptable Uchiha or allied clan bride is just - pathetic.

Just - no.

It’s unacceptable. Now, Izuna might not like his brother’s bizarre fascination with the Senju, but he can at least understand it - thrill of the unknown, the power dynamics inherently involved in any relationship with an enemy clan, that sort of thing - so the solution to this embarrassing dilemma is clearly to find _another_ Senju, preferably an unmarried one, to become the focus his brother’s attentions. That way they can just kidnap whoever-it-is and be done with it.

Obviously, of course, it can’t be just _any_ Senju. Izuna’s big brother deserves the best - and with Hashirama taken, there’s really only one Senju that fits the bill.

Tobirama.

Irritating, cold-hearted, sonofabitch - but admittedly beautiful - Tobirama.

Izuna is making a truly noble sacrifice, giving up his rivalry for his brother’s happiness (not to mention the clan line’s continued existence, with the help of a few gender-switching and fertility-enhancing seals), but it’s going to be worth it.

Sure, neither of them is interested right now, but Izuna has studied his rival for years and knows his brother better than Madara knows himself: this will be no problem. The plan is perfect. There’s absolutely nothing he’s overlooking.

(Except maybe his own desires.)


	19. A Graveyard Full of Stars

**Fic Title: A Graveyard Full of Stars**

Fic Summary: The Edo Tensei was a failure, cast aside into the list of forbidden jutsu, but any good scientist will tell you that you’ll never get anywhere by testing out only one possible solution. Tobirama carefully interprets his brother’s command to “stop trying to raise the dead as zombies!” as referring only to that particular jutsu.

That was probably a mistake.

Playing around with his already-too-powerful sensor abilities - you know, the ones he can’t turn off? - was probably also a mistake.

Combining the two?

_Definitely_  a mistake.

On the bright side, being able to see ghosts means that Tobirama can talk to his brothers again. On the not-so-bright side, Izuna is the _most annoying peanut gallery ever_.

(Also, he’s far too good at gambling for a dead man, which is why Tobirama finds himself knocking on Madara’s door in the middle of the night to deliver a stupid message that doesn’t even make any sort of sense. It sounds like a piece out of a nursery rhyme or something - at least all Tobirama agreed to was to stand there and recite it, not explain where he heard it from.)

(…he probably should have considered the possibility that it was a code.)


	20. Poison, Dancing in the Moonlight, Pout, Dig two Graves, Queen of Air and Darkness, Twisting Paths

**Poison**

Izuna is the only thing standing between his brother and the peace he so very much wants and he knows it.

Most of the time he thinks it’s a good thing - someone needs to preserve their clan - but sometimes he wonders if he’s doing more harm than good with his intransigence.

No matter how right Zetsu says he is, too much medicine can sometimes be a poison...

-

**Dancing in the Moonlight**

Madara is insane over his brother’s death and he wants to hurt someone.

No, not someone, _Tobirama_ , his brother’s murderer.

And Tobirama, in turn, wants his brother to be happy - and as much as he hates it, having Madara around is part of that happiness.

So when Madara starts making noises about leaving the village to go find another path to peace, a path that Tobirama just knows will lead to breaking Hashirama’s heart, Tobirama decides to offer him the one thing he knows Madara will find irresistible: the possibility of revenge.

Madara agrees, and so, every night, Tobirama leaves his work and reports to the haunted house tucked away from the rest of the Uchiha - and what happens there is nobody’s business but theirs.

-

**Pout**

Tobirama’s jutsu backfires and he gets deaged. Which is fine: he was pretty deadly as a kid, and now enemies will underestimate him. He just wishes they’d stop pinching his cheeks and making those horrible cooing noises…

-

**Dig Two Graves**

Madara’s heard that revenge isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, but as the master of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, conqueror of the world, with his brother’s soul pulled back out of the Pure Lands by Tobirama’s Edo Tensei and his best friend (as well as the man’s unfairly attractive brother) genjutsu’d into thinking themselves content to sit by his side to rule the world with him…

He thinks whoever came up with that saying is wrong.

-

**Queen of Air and Darkness**   

Hashirama’s beloved brother Tobirama was taken away from him by the vicious people of his own village, who he will never forgive, and Hashirama’s going to get him back no matter what the cost.

And if having died frozen on the mountain makes Tobirama a little _strange_ when he comes back to be Hashirama’s queen, well, the rest of the world is just going to have to live with that.

-

**Twisting Paths**

Hashirama likes to go spirit walking through the many worlds.

It shows him so many different ways his life could have gone, did go in a different world, and sometimes they are very sad. 

But that’s okay: this time, _this time_ , Hashirama’s going to make sure he gets exactly what he wants out of life - and no crazed moon-goddess is going to get in his way.


	21. The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day

**Fic Title: The childhood shows the man, As morning shows the day**

Fic summary: Madara finds that the Rinnegan, finally achieved, gives him the ability to travel back in time - unfortunately, he can’t quite manage to control _when_ in time. He’d been _aiming_ to get back to the battle where it all goes wrong and Izuna dies. But it’s fine: as soon as he recovers from the chakra expenditure of time travel, he’ll just jump forward again, a shorter jump, and he’ll be more accurate then.

But that does mean he needs to find something to do in the meantime. First things first, he checks to make sure his own family is safe, but they are - so he might as well go across the river to check on Hashirama. After all, once he fixes history so that they can be rule the world together the way they _should_ be, it’ll be fun to have some embarrassing baby stories to torment him with - and Tobirama, too, while he’s at it -

It turns out that there might have been some parts of his and his brother's childhood experience that Hashirama left out of all of his stories.

Some parts that make Madara first horrified, and then, very quickly after, angry.

Clearly he’s going to have to fix this, too.


	22. Second Rate Souls

**Fic Title: Second Rate Souls**

Inventing the Edo Tensei was the first mistake.

Letting anyone but his brother find out about it, the second.

But - well. Putting together a village is expensive, and not having a war on makes assassination jobs (the most valuable) all the rarer at the worst possible time. And he’s a shinobi - what does he care about trading in unwonted death? It’s what he does normally, if not quite in this way. Besides, it helps village unity.

He must admit he never thought he’d be running a shop, though.

It’s a very discreet one. You have to know who to ask, what words to say, and you have to pay. Not just in money, either; the Edo Tensei, even the weakened version he’s perfected to require pain instead of a life.

Madara comes by often to speak with his brother. He’s not the only one - Hashirama will slink in late in the nights with circles under his eyes, looking ashamed after having been so loudly against it, but a few hours with Kawarama and Itama soon put him to rights. Mito has a sister. Touka, an old lover. Everyone’s lost someone to the war.

He can’t bring them back to life for real ( _not yet_ , something inside him whispers, and there are freely-given samples of both Madara’s blood and Hashirama’s sitting in his lab waiting for further tests, _but not yet doesn’t mean never_ ) but he can trade the shinigami for a few hours of something not that far off.

It’s a good business.

He may never be forgiven for it.


	23. Forgive Yourself

**Fic Title: Forgive Yourself**

Hashirama holds his brother’s shaking body, his fingers threaded through Tobirama’s pale hair. Tobirama doesn’t cry, not anymore - their father’s training, still burned into his brain - but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t feel things. It’s just that he feels them locked inside, deep down, like an oyster. Burning in his gut until it has to be spat out.

Hashirama wants to comfort him, but he doesn’t know what to say.

He can’t say “It’s okay.” It wasn’t.

He can’t say “It’s going to be okay.” It won’t.

He can’t even say “It’s not your fault.”

So what he says, instead, whispering into his brother’s ear, is: “Forgive youself.”


	24. Last Dance

**Fic Title: Last Dance**

“So, there’s probably something I should have told you a long time ago,” Hashirama says. “It has to do with my brothers. They died, you see.”

“Stop me if you’ve heard this story before,” Madara says, coughing up blood. His eyes flicker around the valley they’ve just fought to the death in; Hashirama struck him down with what in another situation he might have admired as a very good blow. "Oh wait. I have. Please stop.“

"No, no, it’s just - you don’t understand. They _died_. Both of them. I was - very sad about it.”

“Hashirama…”

Madara stops, then. The irritated look fades away, replaced by puzzlement.

“Hashirama,” he says again. “What do you mean ‘both’?”

You don’t use 'both’ for sets of three.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you,” Hashirama says. “I only ever had the two.”

A moment of silence.

“I was the one who invented the Edo Tensei,” Hashirama confesses. “I wanted to get them back, you see, even if I had to go into the afterlife to get them myself. And I made it all the way there, too, but he wouldn’t let me take them back. Dead is dead, he said; and they have to stay that way. But - he didn’t want me to try again, you see. So he came back with me - and I had a brother again.”

“Hashirama,” Madara says quietly. “Are you trying to tell me your brother is _the Shinigami_?”

“I’m trying to tell you that you can stop worrying about dying,” Hashirama says, and pats the gaping wound in Madara's chest that should have already robbed him of air and life.  "Tobirama loves us both far too much to ever let us go.“


	25. Kitten Paws and Prickling Claws

**Fic Title: Kitten Paws and Prickling Claws**

Mito really was going to turn Tobirama back into a human, she swears, it’s just that he looked so _offended_ \- and the look on his little kitten face was just so precious -

Okay, maybe she shouldn’t have laughed quite so hard. Or so long. Or, you know, not lost track of the damn idiot Senju who was as fearless as ever despite now being their approximate size of her fist.

If Hashirama’s little brother gets himself eaten by an opportunistic hawk, Mito’s husband is going to kill her and she’s going to deserve every bit of it.

Luckily, though, it seems that her worries were overblown: Tobirama was not eaten by a hawk.

He only got picked up by Madara, who appears to be trying to befriend the yowling kitten.

Mito suspects Tobirama might’ve preferred the hawk.

“Oh, Mito-hime,” Madara says, spotting her. “I’ve found a kitten. Very fierce, very young, adorable…tell me, do you think he’s old enough to be spayed?”

Mito covers her mouth.

Tobirama would _definitely_ have preferred the hawk.


	26. Eyes wide open... what do you see?

**Fic Title: Eyes wide open... what do you see?**

Tobirama lies to people and says he’s just a very good sensor. The rumors magnify it, with boasts that the Senju have the finest sensor in Fire Country. People sometimes try to challenge him to contests, and they always lose, and his reputation grows. He avoids discussing it whenever possible.

He’s a decent sensor, actually. Above average, probably - though not by much. Not enough to be notable, but far more palatable than the truth.

It’s not people's chakra he senses so far away.

It’s their minds.

(if anyone ever found out, they’d kill him in an instant)


	27. Turn My Heart to Mosaic

**Fic Title: Turn My Heart to Mosaic**

“You really need to stop calling Tobirama heartless,” Hashirama tells Madara.

Madara snorts.

“No, I’m serious. You need to stop.”

“Why?” Madara says mockingly. “Does it hurt his feelings?”

“No, it doesn’t. But it pisses _me_ off.”

That actually gets Madara’s attention. “You? Why? I mean, if it doesn’t bother him -”

“My father promised a powerful youkai the still-beating heart of his son in exchange for a great victory,” Hashirama says. “It came back to claim it, asking for mine. Tobirama volunteered his instead. It’s all very terrible and I don’t like thinking about it, so I’d really appreciate it if you -”

“Wait, wait, _what_?!”

Hashirama blinks. “Didn’t you know?”

“No!”

“Oh. Huh. Your father knew, so I assumed…”

“I didn’t know. I didn’t - I assumed - Shit. Is there anything that can be done for it?”

Hashirama arches his eyebrows. “There’s a set of tasks that can be completed by his soulmate, but due to his condition we can’t identify who that might be - he doesn’t even feel the pull anymore. And anyway, why do you care?”

Madara flushes red. “Uh. No reason.” He pauses for a moment. “…and what tasks would those be, out of curiosity?”


	28. So It Goes

**Fic Title: So It Goes**

If Tobirama had been the one cast back in time, he would have had a long complicated plot to alter only the crucially necessary details of the timeline in order to ensure that his enemies’ actions remained predictable. Madara…well, if what Madara had ultimately become has been the one to come back in time, the world would probably just end a lot earlier.

Unfortunately for everyone, Hashirama was the one.

“…and that’s why we need to fix everything!” he finishes, beaming. “How’s that sound?”

“I can’t believe you kidnapped my brother and I right out of the Uchiha compound to tell us this ridiculous story, _Senju_ ,” Madara says.

“I can’t believe you made up an entire presentation first,” Izuna says.

“I’d like to say that I can’t believe you had the bad taste to befriend _them_ ,” Tobirama says. “But actually that’s entirely in character for you. Can you untie me now?”

“Not until you’ve agreed to my plan, sorry. You’re a bit quick off the mark when it comes to stabbing Uchiha.”

“…hn. True. Okay, I agree.”

“You _do_?” Madara squawks.

“I always got the impression you were the reasonable one,” Izuna tells Tobirama, who shrugs.

“The only proof he’s identified that we can expect in our immediate future is the death of our respective brothers,” he points out. “I don’t know about you, but I’m not willing to risk that happening just because I’m a little skeptical of my anija’s sanity.”

“…say we accept that as a valid point,” Madara says, “which I don’t actually agree to given that the entire thing hinges on a future version of me befriending the possibly-insane heir to a clan that has a blood feud with my own because I’m apparently too dumb to realize who he is –”

“Oh, you knew,” Hashirama interjects. “We both did. We were just avoiding mentioning it.”

“ _Even if_ we accept that,” Madara continues, ignoring him. “How in the world are we supposed to _do_ anything about it? We’re _eleven_. Our brothers are _nine_ –”

“Tobirama’s eight, actually.”

“Shut it, anija. You’re not helping your case here. Madara’s right – even just stopping our brothers’ deaths will involve going up against fully fledged shinobi, which none of us are ready to do.”

Irritated but not disagreeing looks appear on the Uchiha brothers’ faces.

Hashirama rolls his eyes at all of them. “Don’t be such downers! I remember all the jutsu that all of us learned in the future, including the ones that became our trademark specialties, and I’m willing to teach them to you. With those, we’ll be able to rescue our brothers now, and then, once we’re grown up, we can stop Zetsu. Who’s with me?”

“Me,” Tobirama says.

Izuna glances at Madara. “Learning a bunch of new jutsu would be really cool even if this does turn out to be insanity…”

“Ugh. _Fine_. I can’t believe I’m agreeing to this…”

“We’re going to have so much fun!” Hashirama says, clapping his hands together. “I can’t wait!”


	29. Learning to Fly, Learning to Fall

**Fic Title: Learning to Fly, Learning to Fall**

Fic Summary: Tobirama’s entire clan is almost certainly laughing at him right now.

In fact, he wouldn’t put it past Hashirama to have _known_ about this when he’d agreed to the marriage that would put a permanent end to the war between their clans, the fiery Uchiha of the sky and the sinuous Senju of the earth and wave, so as to stop wreaking havoc on the poor humans that were stuck in between them.

It wasn’t as if Tobirama really objected to the idea of marriage – he’d always assumed an arranged marriage was part of his future, and an Uchiha would at least ensure he had strong children, which was far more his concern than the quality of any spouse – but…giving up his long twining tail in favor of legs and a pair of wings?

A pair of wings he now _needed to learn to use_?

Tobirama is _not_ having a good day.


	30. Satin Embers

**Satin Embers**

Fic summary: It’s Hashiram’s fault, really – he’s the nosy one, and once he learns to coax secrets out of dead wood, there’s no stopping him from learning _all_ the gossip. Some of which is, in fact, highly guarded and incredibly secret clan secrets.

Like, for instance, the fact that being born an Uchiha and learning their famous fireball technique isn’t the only way to be recognized as an adult member of their clan. There’s another way, apparently. Anyone who walks along the entire path of embers on the night of the fire festival without making a sound, no matter who, is entitled to wear the fan and join the talks of their counsel.

It’s not a _popular_ approach, of course, given that the path of embers is made out of fires lit by Uchiha flame, and apparently hasn’t been used in years, but – no matter who.

If Tobirama can pass this stupid test, they have to let him join their clan, and if he joins their clan, they have to let them join their warrior’s council, and if he joins their council, he can propose peace talks with the Senju – and a proposal by someone who isn’t part of the main branch, however disreputable, is all Madara needs to actually get the measure through.

Worth it.

(the fact that this approach isn’t used because it’s a religious ritual reserved for those blessed by the patron goddess of the Uchiha somehow _never came up_ )


	31. The Names We’re Called, The Names We’ve Claimed

**The Names We’re Called, The Names We’ve Claimed**

Fic summary: They have had many names over the years: a new one each time they slip into the skin of a stillborn babe and claim its life as their own. They might not be able to hide their presence – their overwhelming chakra bleaches their skin white and turns their eyes red, no matter what they were originally or what their parents looked like – but they always get a new name, and they like it that way. It’s like putting on a brand new coat.

This time doesn’t feel that way, though.

Tobirama.

_Senju_ Tobirama.

 (It’s a risk, being born into one of the descendant clans, a foolish risk, but they were getting bored. And anyway, at least they weren’t stupid enough to pick the one with the too-sharp eyes.)

They like the name they’ve been given this time, and they like the family, too: they’ve had family before, brothers and sisters and everything in between, but Hashirama is…special. He’s powerful enough to see what they are, even if he doesn’t quite understand it, and he makes the choice to love them anyway.

That’s never happened before. Not once.

No, they are happy this time. They will keep this body, they will protect their brother, they will make things right. And no one is going to stop them.

Not even the part of themselves that is still locked away in their endless madness and rage.

Tobirama blows a kiss up at the rest of themselves, and turns away from the moon.

He’s got better things to do.


	32. Still Into You. Despite Everything, It’s Still You.

**Still Into You. Despite Everything, It’s Still You.**

 Fic Summary: Tobirama has an Uchiha’s heart, his family used to joke: once he loves, he loves forever, ceaselessly and beyond all reason.

They stopped making that joke when Kawarama died. Too dangerous.

Maybe if they hadn’t, Madara wouldn’t be so surprised right now.

“I’m a sensor,” Tobirama reminds him. “And your husband. Or did you really think a little thing like attacking my village, trying to murder my brother, and forcing him to murder you would make me break my marriage vows?”

Madara’s blind in one eye now, but he can still see when a battle would be futile. He steps aside and lets Tobirama sweep into the cave he’s apparently been living in: that won’t do, of course. Tobirama prefers to be comfortable when he works, and he expects whatever Madara’s come up with will require a great deal of work.

“Are you coming?” Tobirama asks when Madara doesn’t move from the entrance. “Your plan isn’t going to achieve itself if you just stand there.”


	33. Taking a Tragedy by the Throat

**Taking a Tragedy by the Throat**

Fic Summary: “I thought you knew,” Hashirama says blankly. He’s still kneeling; his face is still splattered with blood. “Didn’t you know? You call him the White Demon. I’ve heard you.”

“I didn’t know,” Izuna says. He’s shaking. “I swear - I didn’t know…I was just being rude. I didn’t realize he wasn’t human, that he was - what _is_ he?”

"Does it matter?“ Hashirama asks. "He’s my brother. He’s Madara’s lover, apparently. He’s -”

“Going to kill them all if you don’t stop him,” Madara rasps. He wasn’t dead, thanks to Hashirama’s efforts, but - well.

He’s not likely to walk again.

“That’s too bad,” Hashirama says, ignoring how his best friend looks at him, incredulous. "Very sad. What a pity.“

"Hashirama, you _idiot_. I meant you should go and stop him!”

“They attacked you in the middle of a peace conference,” Hashirama says. “They crippled you right in front of your demonic lover. I’m not sure what you’re expecting me to do here; I’m just the one keeping you alive right now, minor detail as I’m sure that is.”

“He’s going to _wipe them out_!” Madara says through gritted teeth. He shouldn’t be yelling in the state he’s in. “All of Takigakure!”

“Maybe next time they’ll make better choices,” Hashirama says, and he knows Izuna is looking at him like he’s never seen him before, but Hashirama did grow up with a demon for a brother.

“If they’re all dead, there won’t be a next time,” Izuna says.

“I meant the next village,” Hashirama clarifies. “Now be quiet; I’m barely keeping your brother alive as is.”

Tobirama might be the demon in the family, but Hashirama’s always been one to emulate what he loves.


	34. A Shattered Promise

**A Shattered Promise**

Fic Summary: “I’m sorry,” the medic says. “If he wasn’t an albino - already weakened - there might be hope, but…”

“There’s nothing you can do?”

“No. There has been too much damage; his heart is going to fail.”

Hashirama thinks of the way he cut himself playing with his father’s swords yesterday morning - how the blade twisted and cut deep into his palms - how it stitched itself together even as he watched, leaving behind no sign but the blood to clean up.

“It’s okay,” he says, stepping forward. “You can give him mine.”

(And if some hidden part of himself he’s never acknowledged whispers _Not this time, brother, I’m sorry_ to some other soul hidden elsewhere in the world – well, it’ll be worth it, if only Tobirama survives.)


	35. Talons Tracing Sanguine Scars

**Talons Tracing Sanguine Scars**

Fic Summary: “You’re lovely,” the dragon says dreamily. “You may be the loveliest thing I ever stole.”

Tobirama is far too familiar with the stories of Uchiha fickleness to be moved. Uchiha dragons love deeply, but possess lightly - as long as Tobirama remains only a ‘thing’ in his eyes, the dragon (he’s not sure which one it is, only that its more humanoid form has rather a lot of hair) will forget about him soon enough.

Still: he’s a shinobi. It’s not like he got kidnapped by a dragon by /accident.

So he pastes on a smile on his face and says, “Sure. Whatever you say. Are you done admiring me yet?”

The dragon blinks and squints at him. “…maybe. What would you do if I said yes?”

“My brother needs some magic crystals to serve as a foundation for the shield-wall we need to protect his stupid village of peace idea,” Tobirama explains, both because dragons can smell lies and because there’s no reason not to. “The only way to get them is to sell yourself into slavery to the dwarves for a few years, or to steal them from someone who already has some. And the only people who have any are dragons.”

“…you came here to steal crystals.”

“Not from _you_ , obviously,” Tobirama says dismissively. “That would be suicidal. Any chance you have a dragon you particularly dislike that has a few?”

The dragon blinks. “Well,” it says slowly. “Those stuck-up Hyuuga have more than they could ever use -”

“That works. Are we done here?”

“You know,” the dragon says contemplatively, “I’m not sure we are.”

But he lets Tobirama go, so clearly it’s not that important. 


	36. Silver Chain, Crimson Claim

**Silver Chain, Crimson Claim**

Fic Summary: The Uchiha and the Senju hate each other, but due to the rest of Fire Country’s concerted efforts to ensure they encounter each other as little as possible, they don’t actually know each other that well. They might have heard of Butsuma’s second son, but they don’t actually know what he looks like - or that he doesn’t look like the rest of his family, dark hair, tanned skin, and brown eyes.

That makes Tobirama ideal as a spy.

Assuming, that is, he can find a way to make it through the mental reprogramming they use their damned Mangekyo to impose on particularly tempting captives.

Tobirama thinks he figured out a way.

Tobirama - currently pretending to be a Hatake, currently collared and chained like the slave he’s about to become, currently in line for the adjustment, as the Uchiha call it - really sincerely _hopes_ he figured out a way.

His brothers are counting on him to do this right, though, and he won’t let them down if he can help it.

He has to do this.

“Your turn.”

Tobirama swallows, hopes his brothers know how much he loves them, and looks up into the swirling black and red.


	37. Heavy Sits the Pointless Crown

**Heavy Sits the Pointless Crown**

Fic Summary: Somehow Madara thought that taking over the world would be more - satisfying.

With his Infinite Tsukuyomi working just as intended, peace has now definitively been established - real peace, peace forever - and defeating the combined might of the various shinobi villages wasn’t actually all that hard once he had all the power of the bijuu. It wasn’t as if any of the modern day shinobi had anything similar to the likes of Hashirama or Tobirama - and rumors of that one snake-man failing to recreate the long-destroyed Edo Tensei aside, since no resurrection jutsu had ever been invented that didn’t require the life of the user as well as the Rinnegan, it wasn’t as if he could fight _them_ again. That, at least, would’ve been interesting.

Fighting them, at least, he’d been _happy_.

…hm.

Madara _is_ all-powerful now. There’s no reason he can’t just - go back. Back to the Valley of the End -

No.

Better idea.

Back to the _beginning_ \- not when they were children, no, but the first time they met as Clan Leaders, when Hashirama was still young and untried and wanted peace between them so much that he was willing to make all sorts of unwise promises that years of diplomacy eventually taught him to retract -

And if Madara can get Hashirama on board, Tobirama will follow, too, and Madara’s always wanted to see how far that too-brilliant mind and too-cold heart could go if pushed.

A perfect plan.

Right up until he goes back, and Izuna says, “What the _fuck_ , aniki, since when do you have _horns_?!”


	38. Wielding Fates Needle

**Wielding Fates Needle**

Fic summary: Tobirama cried a lot as a child. It’s actually fairly surprising: he was in almost every other respect a perfect soldier for his father, cold and dispassionate, taking to the sword as if he’d been born with the hilt in his hands, leanring jutsu as easily as breathing - and every once in a while, he burst into tears. There didn’t even seem to be a trigger for it; it just /happened, and eventually Butsuma gave up on trying to teach him to stop and started teaching him how not to make such a big production about it.

It’s not until Tobirama refused to allow them to send Kawarama on the mission that would’ve been his death that Hashirama starts to suspect. 

When it happens again with Itama, Hashirama, who’d just about managed to quash his ridiculous thoughts, feels even more sure.

“Tobirama,” he finally says, late one night when they’re all alone and watching the stars. “Can you see the future?”

Tobirama is silent.

“You can tell me. I won’t tell anyone else; I promise. Please tell me.”

Tobirama is crying again. Silently, now, the way he’d been taught: tears streaming down his face noiselessly, face as stern as ever but for the salt on his cheeks.

“Tobirama…?”

“I see all of them,” Tobirama whispers. “All the futures: all the choices we will face. I see them all, and they’re all bad, anija, every last one of them, and I don’t know how to change them. There’s too many choices - too many people - sometimes I think the shinobi world wants to end, anija. Not now, no, but - soon. In another century. Crisis after crisis, escalating, until one day we lose, until inevitably we lose…I don’t know what to do. Even telling you this now…you could’ve been _married_ , anija.”

Hashirama blinks at that. Married? Of course he would be, one day, he’s clan head, but the way Tobirama talks about it -

“You would’ve had a beautiful wife, and children, and died thinking they would live - they wouldn’t, of course, they’d die with the rest of the clan, but your life…” Tobirama shakes his head. “But it’s too late now. I was selfish: I said yes instead of no when you asked. You’re going to have to help me deal with this now, and it’ll take both our lives to get the power to make things right - or at least as close to right as we can.”

Hashirama licks his suddenly dry lips. “How do we make it right?”

Tobirama turns to look at him, and he looks too old in the light, too old and not quite right. “Tell me,” he says, “have you heard of the bijuu..?”


	39. Dancing with The Dawn Light

**Dancing with The Dawn Light**

Fic Summary: “Don’t be ridiculous,” Tobirama says. “Of course I know how to dance.”

Madara gives him a skeptical look, more because he can than because he actually doubts it. Most shinobi at least have some ability to dance, or at least to fake it decently enough, given that the amount of body control necessary to be a superlative fighter translated fairly well to dancing. But he did enjoy how irritated his doubt made Tobirama.

“Tobirama’s our clan’s best dancer, actually,” Hashirama says, cheerfully settling down between them.

Madara manages not to give away that he’d been taken by surprise – Tobirama does the same, which is at least some comfort, and also a timely reminder that as ridiculous as Hashirama may be he’s also really quite frightening given half a chance – and turns to his best friend with a smirk. “Something he can beat you in?” he teases. “I don’t believe it. How can that be?”

“Well, it probably has to do with –”

“Don’t tell him,” Tobirama interjects.

“– that time he ran away and apprenticed himself to a travelling geisha school for a year,” Hashirama concludes.

Madara’s eyebrows shoot up. “He did _what_?”

“It was great; we fed the clan off of the proceeds for _months_ ,” Hashirama says nostalgically. Tobirama’s head is buried in his hands. “No one ever suspects the twelve-year-old maiko of being a shinobi on a political assassination spree. He killed _so many people_.”


	40. Torn Wings, Sparkling Things

**Torn Wings, Sparkling Things**

Fic Summary: Tobirama sees the way Madara looks at the children taking their first flights, wings still covered in down beating futilely in the air as they belly flop onto soft mattresses, and he thinks about the stories they tell about the young heir of the winged clan. Everyone knew he preferred to stay on the ground - whispers suggested he had no choice. That he’d been either born different, or maimed in some way, and that his older brother, a proper heir, had died in his defense as a result of his deficiency.

Tobirama is all too familiar with the feeling of deficiency.

That’s why he stays up late in his laboratories for months, inventing and then testing and re-testing - he doesn’t have the hollow bones of the Uchiha, of course, and that means he has to guess a lot, but surely if he can make it work for himself, he can make it work for anyone. 

When it’s done, Tobirama indulges his feline instincts and sneaks over to the Uchiha compound - stupid to the point of recklessness, given their clan’s enmity, and no matter that his brother had once disregarded all natural law to make friends with Madara - to deliver the results himself.

Madara senses him first, as he’d expected, and runs out to kill him, but while Tobirama is weaker he is also faster and it’s easy enough to slap the seal onto Madara’s back as he runs away.

The next battle, he smiles to see Madara lead his clan in the sky, held aloft by wings of pure chakra painted in red and black, hears his brother clap in involuntary delight at his old friend’s joy, and thinks that will be the end of it.

He’s not expecting Madara to come chasing after him, demanding answers he doesn’t have.


	41. He Who Was Once Kore

**He Who Was Once Kore**

Fic Summary: Some people say it was a kidnapping, others a marriage, but all are wrong.

Madara tore open the doors to the Underworld himself, the replenishing flame that reawakens the mountain pines glittering around his hands, and went down in search of the brother he had lost. He knew as he stepped through the passageway that there was every chance he would not return, and he accepted it, just as he had accepted the crown of springtime his clan had given him knowing that it marked him as the next year’s sacrificial king – and he didn’t care one bit that his untimely death would doom their prayers for a fruitful growing season. They had killed his brother the year before, and in so doing lost his love forever.

He was expecting to see many terrible things.

He wasn’t expecting to see an irritated-looking man sitting beside a desk, marking down the fates of the dead as fast as they came in. There were circles under his eyes, highlighted by the red slashes in his cheeks or the bone-white color of his hair. “Name,” he said without looking up as Madara approached his table.

“Uchiha Madara.”

“You’re not due to die yet. Go away.”

Madara hesitates. “I’m here for my brother.”

That gets the man to look up. His eyes are red. “Oh,” he says. “You’ve come harrowing, then? We haven’t had one of you in ages, and certainly not someone who’d just been named as a Kore sacrifice, of all things. You’ll be wanting to talk to my brother, then. Take the path to the left.”

They say the master of the Underworld is dark in skin and hair, the life-giver that leads people to reincarnation; they whisper that death-his-brother, the bride he stole from the gods of the world above, trails in his shadows, collecting the souls that his brother rebirths – petition the former, for he is kind and generous, the legends suggest, and avoid the latter, for he will only try to trick and trap you.

Madara’s never been one for following suggestions.

“Any hints?” he asks.

Death looks at him thoughtfully. “Help me finish my paperwork,” he says. “And I’ll give you one.”


	42. Punishment for that Filthy Mouth

**Punishment for that Filthy Mouth**

Fic Summary: As a child, Hashirama taught Tobirama every curse he knew and some he’d looked up in naughty books just for the purpose, and he’d laughed himself blue in the face at his parents’ expressions when his otherwise exemplary infant brother parroted them back later.

It never got less funny, either: Tobirama was a serious child, growing into a stern adult, and no one _ever_ expected him to resort to the vocabulary of a particularly vulgar sailor when he got especially frustrated. 

Some people handled it better than others.

“You can’t say that!” Madara howled at Tobirama. His nose was bleeding again: the Uchiha were a particularly refined type of noble clan. “Shut your damn mouth or I’ll shut it for you!”

Hashirama wondered idly how long it would take for Madara to figure out that the burst of profanity that Tobirama responded with could be translated, basically, as “Go ahead and try.”


	43. Speak To The Dying, and The Dead Cannot Hear You

**Speak To The Dying, and The Dead Cannot Hear You**

Fic Summary: “You know the chances aren’t good,” Madara says. He doesn’t want to be the one saying this, not to Hashirama of all people, not with everything that lies between them. Not about _him_. But someone has to, and the Hokage’s office is currently surrounded by a blood-thirsty and likely poisonous briar that only Madara has been able to pass, and that means it has to be him. “Tobirama’s _ten days_ past his worry date, and we already set that as far back as possible in recognition of his skills. There’s – I’m sorry, Hashirama. But there’s no point in you risking yourself to go after him.”

Hashirama’s eyes are rimmed with red and in the darkness Madara can’t tell if the cause is tears or Sage mode, somehow involuntarily activated. “I have to go,” he says again. “Even if all I bring back is his body.”

“There’s no _point_ ,” Madara says harshly. He, who lost his last brother to Tobirama’s own blade – he knows better than anyone what he’s talking about. “Why do you care if his corpse lies here or there? Make your rituals and bid him goodbye. I’ll even build the memorial pyre for you, if you don’t feel up to it.”

Someone had built Izuna’s for him – Madara doesn’t remember who, but he hopes they know that he is eternally grateful.

Hashirama laughs, voice raw and painful. “Pyre. We don’t use pyres, Madara. The Senju are a doton clan, a mokuton clan – we bury our dead in the ground. If Tobirama is – if he’s gone, his body must be brought home to lie in Senju ground, or else consigned to the sea; no other option is acceptable.”

Madara had known, distantly, that the Senju spent far too much time following a battle in collecting their dead, rather than building pyres for the lost ones in the places they fell. It had rendered them vulnerable, technically, but even child-killers like his father had hesitated before attacking grieving shinobi in the midst of their rituals of the dead, however strange they might be.

But still. To risk losing their Hokage – losing _Hashirama_ , who is in every respect the soul of their village, into Kiri’s grasping, greedy hands, and all for a _corpse_ …

“Is it really that important?” he asks.

“It’s more important than anything,” Hashirama says. “I’ll show you, if you like. You’re my sworn brother – I’m sure it counts.”

Madara isn’t certain what that means, but he is certain that he doesn’t like it, especially when Hashirama leads him deep beneath the earth, so deep that he can no longer feel Amaterasu’s light, and just when he begins to believe that the darkness will consume him, they come to a cavern that is lit up with natural luminescence and suddenly he sees them all around.

The dead.

“Hashirama,” Madara croaks, barely able to speak as he turned around him. The tunnels they are in go on for miles and every wall and ceiling around him is made of bone, _human_ bone, femurs and fingers and skulls of all sizes. “Hashirama…!”

“We call it the necropolis,” Hashirama says, entirely untouched by the fear that consumes Madara. “Here we stand in the center, and speak with our buried dead.”

Hashirama can’t mean what Madara thinks he means. Surely, they mean to speak _to_ the dead, prayers, well-wishes, paper money burnt in offering – not – _not_ –

“I’ve always found my great-grandfather particularly useful for consulting on strategic matters,” Hashirama says thoughtfully. “But my grandmother four times removed is really the one to go to for infiltration, which I think is more helpful in a rescue mission. She married an Uchiha, actually – I think she’ll like you. And better yet, they’ll be able to tell us if Tobirama has entered the Pure Lands or not. Here, let me call them.”

The Uchiha have always cosigned their dead to the flames.

Now Madara knows why.


	44. You should see me in a crown

**You should see me in a crown**

Fic Summary: Seriously, Madara goes away for _one_ mission - admittedly one that unexpected ran for nearly three months - and everybody is acting weird when he comes home. Extremely weird.

Avoiding-all-mention-of-the-Senju weird.

“Are you seriously suggesting that we turn down this _extremely lucrative_ contract,” Madara asks, looking around his council of elders and small inner circle, which includes proven frontliners like Hikaru and _Izuna_ , who’s never been one to lack bloodlust against the Senju no matter how much Madara would like him to, “for _no other reason_ than because we might run into the -”

“Yes,” one of the elders interrupts, looking uneasy. It’s almost as if he thinks the mere mention -

“Senju,” Madara says. “Senju, Senju, Senju.” Wow, they’re actually flinching. What _happened_? “Senju Butsuma. Senju Hashirama. Senju Tobirama -”

He stops at the collective recoil, looks at them all - looks at Izuna, especially, who’s fought Tobirama one-on-one for years. “Okay, so he’s the problem. What did the White Demon do that’s so bad?”

Izuna’s eye twitches. “Did you hear about the - about the tsunami?”

“The one that basically destroyed the eastern coastline? No, I totally missed it; it certainly wasn’t the reason my ten day mission turned out to last three months,” Madara says impatiently. “What _about_ it?”

“The confederation of clans that lives - lived, I guess - by the coastline sent the Senju an offer to open negotiations to establish a peace,” Hikaru says. “Hashirama went. It was a trap.”

Madara’s had to reject several such suggestions from his own council, so he understands that. “Okay?”

"The trap worked - no, Hashirama’s alive,“ Hikaru says quickly, undoubtedly noticing how Madara’s chakra lashes out instinctively. Hashirama might be an enemy of the clan, Madara reluctantly accepts that, but he’s also Madara’s best friend. "Injured, but alive, and you know how he heals. We’re sure there won’t be a mark on him soon enough.”

“Soon enough? It’s been _three months_ , what did they _do_ -”

"That’s not what’s _important_ ,“ Izuna snaps. "What’s important is that command of the Senju transferred to Tobirama, and he - he _destroyed_ -”

He trails off, but Madara can put two and two together. “The tsunami? No one can summon a divine wind and live. All of the suiton masters say so.”

“Yeah, that’s what we thought, too,” Izuna says bitterly. “Listen, now that you’re back, do you think you can make a peace offer the Senju will listen to? Tobirama’s been rejecting all of them - no matter what clan - out of hand, but we think Hashirama will overrule him if it’s you.”

Madara stares, but they all seem in earnest. “What’s your goal here? I won’t sign any offer that’s designed to betray.”

“Oh, we’re _well_ beyond that,” Izuna says. "Right now our only priority is to set up a village with a government system that means Tobirama never has sole power over his clan _ever again_.“


	45. murder kitty

**murder kitty**

Fic summary: “So this is embarrassing,” the great and powerful kyuubi says.

“Don’t take it personally,” Tobirama says, sipping at his tea. “This is also how my brother and I got the cat summoning contract.”

“I don’t think the Uzumaki have ever forgiven us for misusing their chakra chain technique like that,” Hashirama says, pouring himself a little more. The greatest advantage of being able to grow plants, in his opinion, was the ability to have whatever tea he felt in the mood for whenever he was in the mood for it, picked straight off the leaf. “At least you had fun, right?”

The kyuubi grumbles, a sound not unlike a mountain trying to turn around. “Cats,” he eventually says. “What made you think a technique that works on cats would work on me?”

“Cats and foxes fulfill the same biological niche,” Tobirama says. “Also: we gambled. My brother here can’t win a dice throw to save his life, but he makes up for it by having ridiculously good luck when it comes to anything else.”

“Would you be willing to negotiate peace now?” Hashirama asks. “We promise to help untangle you once we reach an agreement.”

The kyuubi looks down at its legs, now firmly intertwined with the chakra chains that had been used to create the giant ball of yarn it’d been kicking around with great vigor while (it hates to admit it) rolling around in the grip of an extremely pleasant drug trip. “…throw in some more of that catnip stuff and promise me you’ll pull the same trick on the Nibi, and you’ve got a deal.”


	46. Nobody asked you

**Nobody asked you**

Fic summary: The creature who gave Madara the amulet was right: it did allow him to take on Hashirama’s shape perfectly, even mimicking his chakra, to the point that even the man’s own brother, a renowned sensor, couldn’t tell the difference. Madara had waited for just the right moment to infiltrate the Senju compound – supposedly to sabotage it, but in truth to search for evidence that would prove Hashirama either truthful or a liar when it came to his endless offers of peace – and now he’s here and he’s doing absolutely nothing of the sort.

“…and what do you think, anija?” Tobirama asks. He’s still mostly naked, clad only in a towel and frowning at what is, apparently, the _joint_ Senju wardrobe.

“Wear the blue,” Madara squeaks. Honestly, he doesn’t care, as long as Tobirama puts on _something_.

“What? No, not about _clothing_. I was asking about your thoughts on the jutsu formulation I’ve been working on.”

“Uh,” Madara says. There’s a single glistening droplet of water that’s been rolling down Tobirama’s back, and it’s just about to go under the towel. He’s been paying very close attention to it, and he can’t seem to stop. “Sorry, wasn’t listening.”

“Talking with the trees again?” Tobirama says, shaking his head. “You know doing that in the middle of the day just makes you lose focus. Maybe a nap would help?”

“Yes!” Madara says, seizing on the potential escape route. “Yes, a nap. Good idea. I’ll do that. Maybe you should…go.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” Tobirama says. “It’s my bedroom too, you know. If you didn’t want to put up with me murmuring jutsu equations while you sleep, you shouldn’t have insisted on our sharing a bed. Go on, get in; I’ll just be a minute.”

Then he drops the towel, entirely unselfconsciously, and grabs an extremely thin yukata, worn nearly see-through from age, from the closet.

Madara is _doomed_.


	47. Ice beneath the waves

**Ice beneath the waves**

Fic summary: When Madara comes back to Konoha, he’s tired and angry and he hates himself more than a little bit for even considering doing what he’d been planning on doing for as long as he’d considered it.

He makes his way over to the Hokage’s office, noting with interest how people walk by him without even noticing him: a far cry from the way it used to be, with people cowering before him. The clans are even more integrated than they’ve ever been – undoubtedly the success of Tobirama’s Academy – and the village is prospering in a way he had barely even imagined.

No one stops him as he goes up to the office, though, which is strange: he sees the ANBU stationed all around him, and he knows they see him, but they don’t lift a finger to stop him.

Madara’s not sure if he’s more offended by the lax security or the fact that they might honestly not see him as a threat.

He walks into Hashirama’s office just the way he used to as if he hadn’t abandoned the village after having said some – some extremely unpleasant things. His stupid desk is somehow still there, waiting for him, and Hashirama is bent over some paperwork. He looks tired, but when Madara walks in he glances and smiles just the way he used to, as if Madara had just popped out on a mission to get groceries or something.

“Your ANBU are useless,” Madara says, in lieu of a greeting. “What if I’d wanted to kill you?”

“You wouldn’t have been able to enter the village at all if you wanted to kill me,” Hashirama says, not even batting an eye at Madara’s abruptness. “If you’re here at all, that means Tobirama decided you’re not a threat. Things have – changed, while you were gone.”

That was ominous. The way Hashirama rubs his eyes, a sign of pain, is even more so.

“Where is he, anyway?” Madara asks, nodding at the empty (and shockingly clean) desk that usually housed an irritating albino with a workaholic streak.

Hashirama nods at the door past the office. “He sleeps, most of the time,” he says. “Keeping watch over the village and the occasional long-range foray take a lot of energy. But if you’d like to talk to him…”

Hashirama’s hands suddenly jerk out, clutching the desk, and when Madara looks at him, he looks back with familiar red eyes that are nothing like a Sharingan.

“What do you want?” Hashirama’s mouth asks in Tobirama’s familiar stern tone.

Madara stares at him. “I just – don’t you want to know –”

“Where you were? I already pulled all the relevant details from your mind,” Tobirama says briskly. “One of the secretaries is preparing your report: you’ll have to sign it for records purposes. You can report to the sealing room afterwards – we could use another frontliner, and I can’t connect you with the rest of the village for strategy if you don’t get the seal.”

The red fades, and it’s just Hashirama again – and he looks so very tired.

“Like I said,” he says, picking up his pen and turning back to his paperwork. “Things have changed while you were gone.”


	48. stars

**stars**

Fic summary: “I want to go play with the humans, Tobirama,” Tobirama grumbles. “It’ll be fun, Tobirama. No one will notice that we’re star-people, Tobirama. I’m sure they don’t kidnap stars anymore, Tobirama. This is the _last_ _time_ I listen to you, Hashirama.”

“No, it’s not,” Hashirama says, cheerful as ever. “Come on, being kidnapped by sky-pirates is an adventure!”

“I hate adventure.”

“Stop being such a spoilsport. How about we take over a kingdom next? You like running things.”

Tobirama _does_ like running things.

“We have no assets, no powers, and no friends. I’m assuming you already have a plan?” he asks, already resigned to following his brother the way he always does.

Hashirama grins.

“You have a plan,” Tobirama concludes. “I can’t wait to see how this one goes wrong.”

The sad thing is - he really can’t.


	49. heart

**heart**

Fic summary: Hashirama’s problem, really, is that he’s got too much heart.

“Heh,” Hashirama says when Tobirama says as much. “That’s a good one. I think I need another, by the way.”

“ _Again_?! It’s only been a few months!”

“It’s not my fault the Mokuton puts stress on the heart!” Hashirama protests. “Besides, it’s not like it matters - your jutsu to clone hearts for me to use works just fine. So what if they’re not as strong as the original? There’s more of them, and it gives you the time you need to figure out how to fix it. So what’s the harm?”

“None at all,” Tobirama murmurs, turning back to what he was doing and very carefully not thinking about the way his brother nearly ran Madara through the last time they fought without so much as a blink, or the way his brother’s wood style had gotten so much sharper and less merciful. “I’ll do the surgery on you later today. Go finish your paperwork.”

Hashirama goes, and Tobirama turns to look at the jar he keeps close to him at all times, inscribed on every inch with every preservation seal he knows. He wonders, not for the first time, if he’s being selfish, keeping Hashirama’s heart all to himself.


	50. frozen thunder

**frozen thunder**

Fic Summary: Tobirama had always liked working on his speed.

It’d been the one thing he’d defied Bustuma on, a little thing so subtle that Hashirama hadn’t even noticed that it _was_ a defiance. The Senju style focuses on power, taking advantage of their height and the strength of their muscles, their bulky builds and the relentless force of their jutsus. There’s no need to be fast when you’re unstoppable.

And still: Tobirama likes to be fast. Faster. _Fastest_. He likes to run – tests himself against greater and greater obstacles – lets his cousins throw kunai at him to see if he can dodge, lets Hashirama test out his many-armed strike against him to see if he can side-step. He refines the shunshin, the kawarimi, invents the hiraishin, but it’s still not enough.

And then one day he’s running – pushing himself – further, always further – reaching inside of him to break open chakra pathways that should be reserved for battle and desperation but that he uses almost exclusively for running –

The world breaks around him, a shockwave unlike that he’d ever felt before, coming not from his feet or his hands but from the very speed itself.

Tobirama stops running.

“Where am I?” he asks.

“…summoning world,” a hare the size of an oak tree says, blinking at him. “I’m sorry, did you just _run_ here? Is that even possible?”

“Apparently so,” Tobirama says, blinking. “Is…that a problem?”

“Are you going to keep running?” the hare asks. “Because if you’re going to go to the Pure Lands, I want to come with. I’ve always wondered what they’re like.”

Tobirama really should go back home.

But –

“…which way to the Pure Lands?”


	51. I’ve come to burn your kingdom down

**I’ve come to burn your kingdom down**

Fic summary: They come to Madara for aid, before the end. He laughs in their faces.

“I don’t know what you thought would happen,” he tells them. He does not look at the entrance to his cell: a cell that is comfortable and filled with everything he could ever want, everything but freedom, but that lack poisons all the others. He never looks at the shadowed form of the man who lingers there as if afraid to enter.

“You should have warned us,” one of them bleats. Foolish, so very foolish. “You should have said –”

“What did Tobirama do now?” Madara interrupts. He doesn’t want to hear them blame him for what they themselves brought upon their heads. “What new horror has the White Demon unleashed, now that his brother isn’t around to stop him?”

Hashirama was immensely powerful, but endlessly naïve when it came to the Uchiha clan: it was only Madara’s firm refusal as Clan Head to allow any of his shinobi to target his former friend’s weakness that kept him alive. And once Madara was no longer Clan Head, once he was confined into this mockery of the life he once knew…well.

They really should have known that Tobirama wouldn’t be able to handle his brother’s death. That man has always been more Uchiha than he was Senju, once you got beneath the skin, and the Uchiha have never been able to handle their revenge well.

“Well?” Madara asks, when none of the elders of his clan – of what _was_ his clan, before they betrayed him and he in return abandoned them – dare to speak. “Tell me. What has he done?”

“He’s raised the dead,” a soft voice says from the entranceway.

It is the first time Izuna has spoken since Madara disowned him.

Izuna, borne by the same mother and sired by the same father as Madara but no longer his brother, ashamed as ever to enter the place where he locked Madara away in his furious need to prove that he was right about the Senju and Madara wrong. He had tried to apologize, once; that was the day that Madara had told him that as far as he was concerned, they were no longer brothers. Madara had had brothers, and as far as he was concerned, the last of them had died when Hashirama had.

“Raised the dead?” Madara asks, chewing the thought over. Hashirama had mentioned something like that, once, very briefly; he’d made it kinjutsu, of course. But Hashirama isn’t around anymore, and Tobirama is so very lonely in his madness. Madara can’t help but smile – and, once smiling, he starts to laugh. “He raised the dead. Of course. Well, I’d start saying your prayers now, then; there are a lot more dead men for him to use as soldiers than the Uchiha clan has to use to defend itself, and his armies will grow as yours shrink.”

Izuna flinches, probably at the way Madara describes the Uchiha clan as _yours_ rather than _ours_.

“How do we stop him, Madara?” he asks, his voice going hard. “You know how. I _know_ you know. I don’t…I still – _you’re_ still my – I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

Madara just keeps laughing. What Izuna means, of course, is that he _will_ , if he thinks it’s for the good of their clan.

Like Izuna ever knew what that was.

“Start guessing,” Madara chokes out, even as his clan’s best torturers reach for him. “I promise I’ll tell you if you starting getting close.”


	52. the times they are a changin’

**the times they are a changin’**

Fic summary: Madara and Hashirama are sitting in the Hokage’s office (technically Hashirama’s, but every time Madara tries to move his desk out Hashirama moves it back in, and anyway Tobirama’s desk is there too so it’s easier to just pretend it’s a communal office) when Tobirama comes in.

He looks – awful. Circles under his eyes, skin near grey, pissed-off expression on his face.

Hashirama takes one look at him and sighs, sounding entirely unsurprised. “How many rounds this time?”

“Twelve,” Tobirama says, throwing himself into his chair. “But on the bright side Kiri _isn’t_ going to assassinate anyone tonight.”

“Good to know,” Hashirama says.

“Do I want to?” Madara asks.

“No. Don’t get him started.”

“Time travel is bullshit,” Tobirama says, ignoring his elder brother. “Short-range rapidly degrading time travel that forces you to run around trying to find a _fucking_ solution to a problem that no one even knows has happened yet? _Absolute bullshit_.”

“…did I know he could do that?” Madara asks. “I feel moderately certain I didn’t know he could do that. Also, how did the Uchiha survive for more than ten minutes after you invented that?!”

“Key words,” Hashirama says dryly. “‘Short-range’ and ‘rapidly degrading’. He can only go back about twelve hours, he can’t interact with his past self, and he can’t tell anyone what he’s doing until he’s finished doing or the jutsu breaks from overstrain. It’s not actually very efficient for killing people, but it _is_ remarkably useful for preventing assassinations. The first time he used it was for Izuna, actually.”

“He saved Izuna? From who?”

“…let’s not get into any such unnecessary details,” Tobirama says quickly.


	53. soulmate

**soulmate**

Fic summary: “No such thing,” Tobirama says.

“Are you _fucking kidding me_ ,” Madara says. “Everyone knows –”

“Are you really citing _common sense_ as the basis for your claim here?”

“Hn. There are studies –”

“Flawed and self-justified ones, you mean.”

“Bullshit. Being a scientist does not exempt you from recognizing that up is up and down is down, and also that _soulmates_ are an actual phenomena.”

“I haven’t seen any evidence that convinces me yet.”

“Why you -!”

( _Should we tell them_ , Izuna asks Hashirama, who has his head buried in his hands. _No, you’re right, there’d be no point_.)


	54. Mad Scientist

**Mad Scientist**

Fic Summary: “We want a little brother,” Hashirama says. Tobirama, by his side as always, nods, a serious expression softened only by the chubbiness of his toddler’s cheeks.

“I see,” their mother says, hiding a smile and glancing at her husband, who looked equally amused. “Was Kawarama not enough for you two?”

“He’s nice, but he’s not like us,” Tobirama says.

“In what way?” their father asks.

“He’s not _like us_ ,” Hashirama repeats. “He’s like _you_. We want a little brother like us.”

“I’m not sure I understand,” their mother says.

Hashirama sighs and looks at his brother. “I told you they wouldn’t help. We’ll have to do it ourselves.”

Tobirama nods, now ignoring his parents entirely. “You or me?”

“Dunno. Half and half?”

Tobirama considers this for a long moment. “That works.”

They wander off, as strange as they were from the moment they were born – each one of them a difficult pregnancy, surviving only through their frantic parents’ seeking the blessing of a local kami. Kawarama had been different, easier and natural thanks to their decision to have his father be Butsuma’s brother rather than the man himself, and perhaps that was the distinction their overly precocious children meant, though neither parent had mentioned it to them.

(Itama is born the next summer – half of his hair is black and slick like Hashirama’s, the other half white and fluffy like Tobirama’s; one eye brown, the other red; and his skin a creamy color that looks just as you might think it would if you poured both his brothers’ into a single cup to mix. That’s about the time their parents start getting worried about their children’s interest in science, but of course by then it’s far too late.)


	55. Waiting for Superman

**Waiting for Superman.**

Fic Summary: There’s no telling how bad things might’ve gotten if it wasn’t for the Akimichi throwing their annual festival every year, open to everyone as long as they agreed to check their prejudices and grudges at the door in exchange for all the food they could consume.

(The original idea had come from Hashirama’s great-grandfather, the one everyone keeps saying he looks and acts so similar to in wondering tones that tend to make Hashirama cross about the entire concept of reincarnation, but given the quality of Akimichi food, this was one idea no one ever complained about.)

Izuna, who’d just gotten dumped by a girlfriend who ultimately admitted she was more interested in his frigid asshole of a brother than him and had been using him as a means to get closer, had uncharacteristically abandoned his clan’s usual run of tables (he really couldn’t look at Madara right now, for all that Madara clearly had no idea what was wrong) in favor of getting absolutely plastered and crawling into the first tent he could find when it started raining.

He blinks at Tobirama, who’d clearly had the same idea.

Technically rivalries were supposed to be put aside for the festival, but – the _Senju_ –

“I won’t say anything if you won’t,” Tobirama finally says.

“Hn,” Izuna says, not convinced.

“You can have some of my sake.”

Getting halfway down the three bottles of sake Tobirama had appropriated from the main table – all of excellent quality, all different, clearly requiring each one to be tried a few times to determine a preference – does more to inure Izuna to the idea of peace than anything his brother has tried.

How they ended up on the subject of clan secrets, Izuna’s not sure. The Senju apparently have this absolutely horrifying graveyard, and in return Izuna’s started telling Tobirama about the stupid stone tablet that Madara goes to brood next to sometimes.

“Wait, what?” Tobirama says. He’s slurring quite badly at this point. “Are you suggesting that the Sage of Six Paths came from _space_?”

“Dunno. Maybe?”

“Huh.”

Izuna twists to look at Tobirama. He’s very familiar with that ‘huh’: it usually precedes very bad ideas that almost always work out because Tobirama is just that good, irritatingly enough.

“Do you think there’s, y’know, a whole _planet_ of Sages?” Tobirama asks.

 “…stop talking and drink more,” Izuna suggests. _He_ certainly plans to.


	56. Plucked Feathers

**Plucked Feathers**

Fic summary: “Why don’t you call one of your summons if you want company?” Madara groans one day. His fingers feel stiff from all the paperwork he’s been doing, and it’s far too beautiful a day outside to be trapped indoors like this. He knows, of course, that Tobirama forces them to stay in the office not out of a desire for company but because otherwise they won’t do the work they need to, but he’s not exactly in a mood to be gracious about it.

Tobirama snorts. “Why would I do that? I like being alive.”

“Me too,” Hashirama puts in. “No summons for Tobirama.”

And that gets Izuna’s attention, of course. “Do your summons not let you call them for purposes other than the battlefield?” he asks, looking amused. His own hawk summons were more than happy to be used for courier purposes, and don’t mind being used to hunt, either. “How’d you manage to piss off a bunch of cats so badly?”

Tobirama blinks. “Cats?”

Madara frowns at him. “Snow leopards?” he says, wondering if the man has somehow forgotten his own summons. “You appear with them in battle sometimes.”

“Uh,” Hashirama says, coughing a little. “The snow leopards are mine, actually. It’s just, you know, I don’t really need them most of the time, so I always send them with Tobirama instead. I can see how you might get the wrong idea, though.”

“Wait,” Izuna says. “Then what _are_ your summons, Tobirama? Have we ever seen them?”

“No, I only call them when I’m fighting an enemy I don’t mind destroying,” Tobirama says. “Which the Uchiha haven’t ever been, thanks to your not-so-secret friendship.”

Destroying sounds promising.

“What are they, then?” Madara prompts.

“Chickens.”

That…couldn’t be right.

“You mean chicken hawks?”

“No, chickens,” Tobirama says, entirely unperturbed by their incredulous stares. “There’s no call for ridicule: you ought to see what the boss summon looks like.”

(They get a chance to in their next battle with Kiri, as it happens, and somehow the whole idea is a lot less funny when a gigantic apex predator bipedal carnivore from the ancient days runs straight at the other side at near-shinobi speeds. The fact that it’s covered in fluffy feathers does absolutely nothing to make the destruction it wreaks any less impressive, and Madara ends up saluting Tobirama in respect for having somehow figured that out where no one else did.)


	57. Broken Wings

**Broken Wings**

Fic summary: “How can I make peace with you?” Madara rages. “You _crippled_ my brother!”

Hashirama’s heart breaks before his eyes, but all Madara can think about is Izuna, back home, offering up his own eyes to Madara because what other use is there for a shinobi, for an _Uchiha_ , who can’t control their breathing because of the scarring on their lungs. He wouldn’t even be able to cast the fireball that Uchiha clan tradition dictates is the sign of adulthood – rendered less than a child, and all because of the Senju.

“Is that all?” Tobirama asks, and Madara turns to him in disbelief, staring with fury at his brother’s would-be murderer, but Tobirama stands his ground, unswerving. “If that’s your price for peace, so be it: you can have my hand.”

Hashirama protests, horrified, but to Madara it seems the only way. Nothing else will do to banish Izuna’s terrible words from his ears; nothing but revenge will make things okay again.

When Madara gets home, he throws the box on the foot of Izuna’s sickbed.

“We’re making peace with the Senju,” he says.

Izuna sits up straight, dropping the plum he’d been nibbling on. “Aniki! How _could_ you? After what that demon did to me –”

“They paid the price,” Madara says, and opens the box to show Izuna that his brother has avenged him properly: Tobirama’s fair skin will make it quickly evident what has transpired. A shinobi’s dominant hand is everything to them: without that, there are no jutsu, no swords, no seals, nothing. Losing your hand means immediate retirement in a way other injuries do not.

Madara thought Izuna would be pleased, but he’s not, he’s frozen, he’s horrified. “What’s the matter?” Madara asks, puzzled. “It makes us equal, this way. One crippling for another. His hand, your lungs, both injuries that cannot be healed – both sides have lost their heirs, and so neither can claim dominance over the other. It was the only way to make peace between us possible.”

Izuna’s hand goes to his chest.

“Brother,” he says, and his eyes are full of terror and guilt. “I lied.”


	58. Drop the Mic

**Drop the Mic.**

Fic summary: “I don’t understand why it doesn’t fucking work,” Tobirama says.

“Language,” Hashirama says mildly.

“Seriously?” Izuna asks. “Is that a thing amongst you Senju? You can kill but you can’t curse?”

“It’s a ‘my brother is a jackass’ thing.”

“Hn, fair. Mine too.”

“I agree, given that he _won’t resurrect from the dead_ ,” Tobirama says, scowling at the ground. After all that work to get the Edo Tensei functional without the necessity of a human sacrifice – Hashirama’s incredibly stupid condition – and he’d was stuck with two out of three? Unacceptable. “It worked for _you_. Why won’t it work for him?”

Hashirama hums.

It’s a knowing sort of hum, so obviously Tobirama and Izuna turn to look at him.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Tobirama, who knew his brother, says flatly. “He faked his own death? _Why_?”

“Says the man who faked his own to get more time to work on illegal jutsu research,” Izuna says dryly. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, of all the stupid, over-reacting, ridiculous drama-queen things to do, that one definitely takes the cake, so of _course_ Madara would do it. He probably has some stupid master plan he’s working on. Now what?”

“Now,” Tobirama says, getting up. “We’re going to go _find him_.”


	59. From the Ashes

**From the Ashes.**

Fic summary: Madara sits alone in a cave with a pile of ash that represents his chosen dream: the first successful attempt at creating the Rinnegan. He’s still shaking - not in triumph, as he’d expected, but in horror.

_Show me a world where Hashirama suffered as I did_ , he’d demanded, overcome with rage and anger and spite, and it had.

He hadn’t been expecting - Hashirama’s smiling eyes vacant and dead, his last brother struck down by Izuna even as he’d sought to heal the injury he’d inflicted on his rival at Hashirama’s request. Madara trying to assuage his former friend’s agony by promising him they’d build the village, the words ash on his tongue, but Hashirama had said no. Hashirama had said: _enough._

_I’m done._

_You people_ \- and Hashirama had never said that before, not once, not ever - _don’t_ deserve _peace._

The Madara of that universe had thought he meant to attack the Uchiha, and retreated, defeated and resigned to war coming to his front door.

It wasn’t war that came.

Without the healing of the Senju, Izuna did not live long, but he lived long enough to see the White Death begin. Spores, growing on wood bark and then releasing into the air - floating into people’s lungs, sinking in through their skin, merging into their drinking water. And, once inside: deadly, eating away at your body from the inside - first the chakra pathways, leaving the most experienced shinobi as less than a civilian, and then the rest of you.

Madara did not get sick. He did not understand, and went to Hashirama to seek help from this unexpected threat.

Hashirama looks up at him from where he kneels at his brother’s grave - not kneels, no; he hasn’t moved from there since the day his brother was given to the earth, and his legs have turned to roots, and it is from his skin that the deadly spore flakes off and drifts into the wind, seeking bodies rich in chakra to use to grow.

_You people_ , Madara thinks, back in his own world - his good, safe world, where Izuna had been an honorable enemy and had died unavenged for it. _It wasn’t the Uchiha that were you people. It was – everybody_.

He stands and looks down at the remains of the Rinnegan, and thinks of the pathway of the Infinite Tsukuyomi, with its world tree, and thinks: _no_.

_Not this way._


	60. Dragon Scales

**Dragon Scales**

Fic summary: “I just need a few,” Madara wheedles.

Tobirama glares at him. “Go ask Hashirama! He’s your dragon of choice most of the time.”

“Yeah, well, he’s made of wood, he doesn’t have scales,” Madara points out.

Tobirama spits lightning at the impertinent human.

Madara dodges. “I only need a few! It’s for a potion!”

Tobirama tries to hit him with his tail, but he can’t quite stop himself from asking, “What potion requires dragon scales as an ingredient?”

“It’s new!”

Damn his curiosity. “What does it do?”

“Agree to give me what I need and I’ll tell you!”

“Oh, I’ll give you what you need all right. Just let me get my claws on you –”


	61. Eye of the Storm

**Eye of the Storm**

Fic summary: Tobirama doesn’t go to the coast much. It’s something that puzzles the other clans, once they are part of the village: most suiton users love being by the ocean, spending their rare vacations there whenever possible, but Tobirama seems perfectly happy with the nearby river, and Hashirama harshly vetoes any well-meaning attempt to send him out on missions that might take him near it.

Madara wonders the same, until the day the two of them are sent out to the coast on a high level diplomatic meeting so delicate that it requires someone of their level.

Oh, Tobirama loves the ocean, that much is clear in the small smile on his usually stern face every time he looks out upon it. But the people _by_ the ocean…

Perfectly respectable clans look covetously upon him with expressions more suited for bloodline thieves. Political leaders try to find reasons to force him to stay behind, staging accidents and duels in an attempt to trick him into breaking their laws. Women try to sneak into his bed with such regularity that Madara is literally forced to share it himself to ward them off, particularly after the first few times they manage to smuggle some sort of mind-altering drug into his food or hit him with a jutsu from a distance.

They call Tobirama the Stormbreaker, the people by the coast. They don’t care about his mind or his love of his clan or anything – all they want is his power to redirect the fury of the hurricane, and for that they will do anything at all. By the time the negotiations are done, Madara whole-heartedly concurs with Hashirama’s refusal to send his brother away for too long.

How _dare_ these people try to take what’s theirs?


	62. Preparation

**Preparation**

Fic summary: Tobirama likes to be prepared. It’s a good trait in a shinobi, leading to him coming up with jutsu and seals that help him carry everything he needs to counter even the unexpected; it’s an excellent trait in a diplomat, leading to him never being taken by surprise by the other side’s attempt to seize some advantage; it’s a crucial trait in a village administrator, leading to him being the one that everyone runs to every time there’s a problem because they know that he will invariably respond with “We have a plan for that.”

Unfortunately, as he finds, as a trait it is _absolutely useless_ when it comes to falling in love.


	63. Empty Heart

**Empty Heart**

Fic summary: Without anyone to stand in their way, the Uchiha take over Fire Country easily. The daimyo himself serves at their pleasure; the other countries tremble in fear before them. Their heirs are the princes of the world and there is nothing that they desire that they can’t have.

It’s _boring_.

“You’re pretty,” Izuna says one day to a white-haired boy he meets while staying at a monastery in an obscure mountain pass. That’s usually all he needs to do to get someone into his bed.

“That’s nice,” the boy says. “You have observational skills.”

Izuna blinks at him. “…do I need to chase you?”

“Try it and I’ll put you in the ground,” the boy says peaceably.

Izuna tries it.

He hasn’t had his face ground into the dirt since he was a small child sparring with his brother.

(He has _got_ to find out more about this stranger.)


	64. I have loved you for a thousand years (I’ll love you for a thousand more)

**I have loved you for a thousand years (I’ll love you for a thousand more)**

Fic summary: Madara doesn’t dare to move a single muscle.

If he does, whatever reality-bending jutsu he’s currently under might break.

“You’re right,” Tobirama says. His voice is very serious. “It’s so _soft_. You wouldn’t think so, looking at it.”

He’s currently straddling Madara’s left thigh, his back curved so that he can lean his head against Madara’s shoulder and paste the entire rest of him against Madara’s body. His hands are buried in Madara’s hair, which he’s been petting with a contemplative expression for the last few minutes.

Tobirama is _incredibly_ drunk.

Madara had not previously been aware that Tobirama becomes extremely touchy-feely when he gets drunk, but now that he knows about it he’s going to have to insist on serving sake at every possible occasion from here on out.

“I _know_ , right?” Hashirama says. He’s on Madara’s right side, draped halfway onto Madara’s lap, his own head leaning against his brother. “So soft.”

Hashirama matched his brother drink-for-drink earlier, and it shows.

Hashiram reaches over and pats Madara’s chest. “It’s not soft here, though. Nice and firm.”

Now Madara has Tobirama’s hands on his belly. “Hn. Softer here.”

Madara’s being felt up by two extremely handsy Senju.

He grins over their heads at the rest of the Uchiha clan, all of whom look like they’re currently plotting his murder. Life is good right now.


	65. The time/space continuum is not the boss of me

**The time/space continuum is not the boss of me**

Fic summary: “So, something I’ve always been curious about,” Izuna says. “Inventing things takes a lot of trial and error, right?”

Tobirama’s eyes slide over to him. “Yes.”

“Which means lots of mistakes, right?”

“…yes.”

“And your hiraishin was the first of the time-space ninjutsu, right?”

A moment of silence, and then: “What’s your point?”

Izuna leans forward. “How many times did you fuck up? And how badly? _Tell me_.”

Tobirama glares.

“You killed me with it,” Izuna points out. “We’re both dead now. You may as well tell me.”

(Izuna is going to spend the next _century_ laughing about this.)


	66. Second Chances

**Second Chances**

Fic summary: It’s not exactly easy being the brother of a creative genius. 

Hashirama himself has some touch of genius - he learns jutsus fast, instinctively, and sometimes it feels like the only limit to what he can do is his own confidence - but it’s different. He’s good at doing, good at dreaming, good at pushing beyond the boundaries of what’s possible, but Tobirama looks at those boundaries and takes four steps over the line on a tangent no one else had previously known existed. On the scale of x and y, Tobirama routinely went off the grid in pursuit of z.

Sometimes, even most of the time, that’s a good thing.

Other times -

Well, other times Hashirama walks in on his brother with a bloody knife in his hand, coldly sacrificing lives for a resurrection jutsu that doesn’t quite work right. Walks in on his brother drawing the outlines of a curse seal that would make a man all but immortal but also result in them being tortured for the length of that unnatural existence. Walks in on him practicing a jutsu that he theorizes would tear open holes in reality itself, resulting in an explosion so large that it would be seen throughout the elemental countries. 

At what point, Hashirama wonders, a little desperately, does he need to stop giving his brother second chances? At what point is his love no longer forgiveness, but the enabling of atrocities? 

One day Madara comes to him, screaming mad; they’d never gotten along, him and Tobirama, and never would, not since Izuna died. He comes to him and he tells him what Tobirama has done and Hashirama presses his hand to his mouth lest he be sick.

If it was anyone else, he wouldn’t believe it for a minute. But - it’s Tobirama. Horrible as it is to say, he’s seen Tobirama do far worse without the slightest hint of regret.

“I’ll talk to him,” he promises.

“Enough talking,” Madara snarls. “I want his _head_. If he were anyone but your brother, you wouldn’t even hesitate!”

Hashirama closes his eyes. Madara is not wrong.

“Fine,” Madara says, seizing the opening. “I understand: he’s your brother, you can’t kill him. But something must be done. Banishment will do, if you must be weak.”

Hashirama shudders. Banish Tobirama? Cast his brother out of the village he built in his name?

“You don’t even have to do it yourself,” Madara says, his voice low, soft, persuasive. “Just sign this document, here, and it’ll be done. Do it now, quickly, before you lose your nerve. As long as such things are permitted, we will never have peace. You know this. You _must_ do it.”

"Yes,“ Hashirama says. "I know. But – I – it’s…you’re right. I’ll – I’ll do what’s necessary. I’ve never been a coward, Madara, whatever else you think of me. But let me be the one.”

The village wakes up the next morning with no Tobirama and no Hokage and a letter - rambling, nonsensical, insane - left on Madara’s desk, telling him that Hashirama did what he had to but he can’t stay here knowing what he has done and that their conversation yesterday will have to do to say goodbye.

(Madara doesn’t understand. He didn’t talk to Hashirama at all yesterday.)


	67. Not the Same River

**Not the Same River**

Fic summary: He’d thought going back in time would solve all of his problems. He’d jump back into his own body, just with extra memories, and he’d just…wait it out. Bide his time until it’s the right time to change everything. He knows what the trouble is now, after all, and there’s no reason anything else has to change.

But everything does, anyway.

(You can’t remember everything you ever did – and you never know what moments were meaningless to you, but meant everything to someone else. A smile instead of a frown, an open hand instead of a closed fist…sometimes it’s the little things that change the history of the world.)


	68. why you don’t anger a god

**why you don’t anger a god**

Fic summary: Sometimes Tobirama feels like his entire life has been spent trying to keep Hashirama away from people in positions of authority, which (given Hashirama’s role as Clan Head and, later, Hokage) is _really hard_. It never goes well: they say something, or do something, or even just look like they think they’re the boss of him, even when they _actually are_ , and there goes Hashirama’s temper.

Every. Single. Time.

In retrospect, he should have just chucked the whole war thing in favor of inventing an immortality jutsu and shoving Hashirama into a cave or something for the next century; it’s probably the only way they would have ended up avoiding the current ridiculous situation.

“Explain, again, how come we’re now the Shinigami’s immortal undead servants?” Madara asks, crossing his arms. “Instead of, I don’t know, _actually dying_? Possibly even reincarnating eventually?”

“Well,” Hashirama says. “It’s a long story –”

“The Shinigami came to collect him when he died and Hashirama pissed him off somehow,” Tobirama says dryly. “That’s just a guess, mind you, but I’d bet my next round of paper money that that’s what happened.”

 “Of course,” Madara sighs. He also knows Hashirama. “Why am I surprised? I should’ve guessed that you wouldn’t even manage _to die_ without getting in someone’s face about it.”

“I haven’t confirmed it yet!” Hashirama exclaims. “It could be something else!”

“Is it?”

“…no. You’re right, that’s exactly what happened.”


	69. Lucifer Falling

**Lucifer Falling**

Fic Summary: People like to talk about the Uchiha curse of hatred, but their lust to possess things of great beauty, and the makers of those things, is not really all that far behind. Of all the noble clans, they more than most sponsor the smiths, the jewelers, the weavers – any craft, as long as it pleases the eye, and they love to show off the beautiful things they have obtained.

To celebrate the newly signed ceasefire treaty with the Senju, entered into with the hope of enabling future peace talks, Madara proposes a display of fireworks. “We’ve got the best,” he brags without any shame. “You’ll never have seen the like before.”

Hashirama laughs. “Always fire with you, isn’t it?” he teases. “Sorry to say, but I’d put Tobirama’s sky-paintings over any display of fire you come up with.”

Madara arches his eyebrows, and knows that Izuna is doing the same beside him. “Sky-paintings? What’s that?”

The technical explanation, it turns out, is that Tobirama can combine his raiton and suiton skills to refract lightning through the water vapor in the air, creating different colors, then manipulate those colors in a wondrous display that goes through every color in the rainbow and beyond. He can paint abstract twists of color, weaving through each other in a sinuous dance, or even, with some concentration, create images: scenes from legend leap through the sky, dragons and gods and yokai of all sorts clashing in a glorious display.

“So,” Izuna says once they’ve returned home to the Uchiha compound. “We’re all agreed that we have to have him, right?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Madara says. “Now how do we _get_ him?”


	70. I told you you would regret it

**I told you you would regret it**

Fic summary: “You had to offer,” Tobirama says resentfully to Madara, who’s starting to look a bit wild around the eyes now that the clothing is coming off. “Did you actually expect for him to say _no_ , once you picked the set of rules you preferred?”

“I didn’t _–_ it wasn’t – _nobody said this was part of it_!”

“I dunno,” Izuna says, pulling off his shirt. “If I’d known an orgy between the two main leaders of both warring clans was considered a necessary ‘gesture of reconciliation’, I might’ve signed up for this whole peace business ages ago.”

“Too late to back out now,” Hashirama, who to no one’s surprise (or at least not Tobirama’s) was already entirely naked, says cheerfully. “You said you’d make peace using this particular set of ancient traditions and they definitely say an orgy is necessary for reconciliation.”

“Maybe it meant _metaphorical_ orgies of reconciliation?”

“Oh, stop whining and get your clothing off,” Tobirama says. “Or I’ll do it for you.”

“…yes please.”


	71. The Rabbit and The Wolf

**The Rabbit and The Wolf.**

Fic summary: “I don’t see why you prey animals don’t just give up and let us take care of you,” Izuna drawls, teeth pulled back into his usual wolfish grin. “I don’t think there’s a more obvious sign of your unsuitability for war than the very nature that you were born with. Wouldn’t you agree, _bunny_?”

Tobirama arches an eyebrow, unimpressed. The long white ears that rose up from his white hair twitched a little, catching the sound of Izuna’s paws on the ground, and he dodges yet another strike. “Tell me,” he says instead, “if that’s the way you see the world, what story does your brother tell himself to explain why he keeps losing to _my_ brother, who may I remind you is _also_ a prey animal?”

Izuna glances over to where Hashirama has, entirely by accident, sent Madara flying across the battlefield, followed shortly by shouted apologies while Madara tries to shake himself back to awareness, wolf tail unable to resist a few wags at Hashirama’s sympathy.

It’s embarrassing, that’s what it is.

“Your brother is a moose,” he says flatly. “Herbivore or not, he doesn’t count.”

Tobirama made a thoughtful noise. “Does this?” he asks, and suddenly he’s right in front of Izuna, slashing down, and it’s really only Izuna’s luck – his paw catches on one of the roots Hashirama’s always throwing around everywhere, sending him sprawling artlessly instead of dodging the way his training would have instructed, which would have sent him straight into the path of Tobirama’s sword – that saves his life.

“What the fuck was that,” Izuna says, flat on his hands and knees, staring up at Tobirama.

Tobirama smirks down at him, triumphant, and uses his sword to lift Izuna’s head until their eyes are not-quite-meeting. “That,” he says, “is what I like to call _talent_. Impressed by us prey creatures yet, wolf?”

Izuna’s traitorous tail gives the tiniest little wag of its own.


	72. Drop of Sun

**Drop of Sun**

Fic summary: “Hey, Tobirama. Remember that jutsu I told you never to do again?” Hashirama asks.

His brother looks at him sidelong. “Which one?”

“The one I told you _never_ to do again.”

“…the one where you told me you’d break all my bones and disown me from the clan if you saw so much as a scribble in its general direction?”

“That’s the one!”

“Yes. I remember it. What about it?”

“Well, what with the world about to end and us both being dead already, not to mention our clan being little more than a memory, I figure that now might be a good moment for it. What do you think?”

“I think that this feels like a trap question.”

Hashirama bites his lip to keep from laughing. “No, I’m serious. You can finally try out your horrible world-destroying jutsu like I know you’ve always secretly wanted to.”

“…really?”

“Really.”

Tobirama’s eyes, dead as they are, light up with glee. “In that case, we should probably evacuate people.”

Minato looked between them. “Exactly how destructive are we talking about here?”

“I’ll use the smallest variant possible,” Tobirama says. “People five miles out should suffer only mild damage – ten miles is probably better.”

“I’m sorry, did you say people _five miles away_ would be damaged?! What sort of jutsu is it?”

“Raiton,” Hashirama says, having heard the entire thing the first time around and having never forgotten it, though sometimes he wishes he could have. “Apparently, the same jutsu configurations that make lightning, when rendered with perfect precision on an extremely – and I do mean _extremely_ – small scale, can recreate the tiniest drop of sunlight. And you know how despite the fact that it’s pretty far away, you can’t even _look_ directly at the sun without agony..?”

Minato considers this for a long moment, then says, “With all due respect, Nidaime, _why did you invent this_?”

Tobirama shrugs. “It was possible. So why not? Now go on, start evacuating people. I’m looking forward to tearing this bastard’s atoms apart.”


	73. Perfect Illusion

**Perfect Illusion**

Fic summary: It’s not that Hashirama hasn’t thought about the approach Madara’s suggesting, the whole take-over-the-world-and-make-people-be-peaceful thing. It has some serious appeal, and Hashirama’s never actually been all that interested in the concept of free will.

“Madara,” he says, quietly enough that it actually gets his friend’s attention and stops his ranting. He’s been mostly ranting, these last few weeks, and nothing Hashirama does seems to stop it. “It won’t work.”

Madara glares at him, but he doesn’t actually seem to see Hashirama there, just a faceless opponent. “Just because you think – falsely – your village is the right way to go –”

When had it become _his_ village, Hashirama wonders. It used to be _our_ village.

“No,” he says. “This isn’t a philosophical difference. It’s a statement of fact. An illusion cast over the world to get them to make peace – it won’t work.”

Madara crosses his arms. “Of course you’d say that. What makes you think you’re right?”

Hashirama smiles mirthlessly. “Well, it didn’t work when I tried it,” he says. “Ended up having to erase everyone’s memories and ditch the whole attempt. Don’t see why it’d work any better for you.”

Madara looks at him, really looks at him, for the first time in months. “You…what?”

“I had Tobirama make me a type of genjutsu that could be transmitted through sound,” Hashirama says gently. “And then I used Mokuton to run that sound through every piece of wood in Fire Country, dead or alive. It’s not as elegant a solution as your Infinite Tsukuyomi, of course, and not nearly as sustainable, but it did the trick.”

“But – I don’t –”

“Remember it? Of course not. Like I said, I ultimately had to erase it. I filled up the space with pointless filler and everyone thinks they had a nice quiet few weeks of springtime.”

“Does – does Tobirama..?”

“Oh, no, I cut it out of his head, too,” Hashirama says. He loves his brother dearly, but he knows that curiosity is a terrible thing. “He knows he’s missing a few months, he knows I removed it, he doesn’t know what happened. He trusts me. You’re just going to have to trust me on this, too, Madara. It doesn’t work. Just like Tobirama’s attempts to raise the dead don’t work. There aren’t any shortcuts to a peace that lasts.”

Madara’s eyes dart from side to side, frantic, trying to figure out if he believes Hashirama or not – and it would be a good lie, with no one able to test it and Tobirama willing to confirm virtually anything if he thought it’s what Hashirama wanted – and then, with a terrible cry, he puts his head in his hands and begins to weep.


	74. For your Entertainment

**For your Entertainment.**

Fic summary: Madara’s bored, incredibly bored. What’s the point of being the heir to the most powerful clan of all time if he can’t escape these horrible boring diplomatic meetings? They always go the same way: he comes, they bow, they try to show off the highlights of their sad little district and at the end of the night, always, they parade a few of the most attractive people before him in the hopes that Madara will select them to join the imperial household as concubines because of the massive favors such a thing will bestow on the entire area.

He’s not expecting much from an obscure mountain district.

That’s probably why the two most stunning people he’s _ever seen_ just – appear right in front of him.

Literally appear, and it’s not a shunshin, it’s _teleportation_ , he knows the difference, and he was under the impression (like the rest of the world) that all the space-time ninjutsu were gone but apparently this small mountain pass doesn’t think like the rest of them do.

The two people who just appeared – one tall and dark, with long silky hair; the other barely shorter, with white hair and pale skin and red eyes – are talking with each other, their chakra so strong that it positively crackles around them in his vision and then someone ruins it by running up to them and whispering something, causing them to nod and _disappear again_.

“Who were they?” Madara demands immediately.

“Oh, nobody,” his host says, and flinches when Madara turns a disbelieving eye on him. “Well, I mean. They’re a pair of brothers from that temple further up on the mountain, that’s all. They invent new jutsu and come down to the market sometimes to sell them.”

Well, it seems there’s nothing for it. Madara’s going to go visit a temple – and he doesn’t have plans to come back down the mountain alone.


	75. Can’t be tamed

**Can’t be tamed**

Fic summary: Tobirama tracks Touka down after the battle. “You got a hit in on Izuna,” he says without introduction. “How?”

“The Uchiha are attracted to strong personalities,” Touka says with a shrug. “I pretended to flirt with him, he got distracted, I hit him. He recovered too fast for a follow-through, though.”

“Hn,” Tobirama says. “Do you think that’s something that would only work for women?”

“No, but stop what you’re thinking right now. It wouldn’t work for you.”

“It wouldn’t? Why not?”

“Tobirama. Tobirama, dearest cousin, darling bunny rabbit of my heart…you can’t flirt for shit.”

Tobirama scowls. She’s not wrong. “I could…learn.”

“This is such a terrible idea,” Touka says, putting her hands together in glee to call Hashirama over. He needs to be present to see the birth of a disaster in the making: he appreciates things like that. “I can’t _wait_ to see this.”


	76. Fire

**Fire**

Fic summary: “Dance for us, Tobirama,” Hashirama, drunk on the joy of having finally signed a peace treaty with the Uchiha and a _lot_ of sake, says, clutching at his younger brother. “Do that pretty one.”

Tobirama, notably less drunk but perhaps a bit more tipsy than he would like to be given how often he’s been obligated to raise cups of well-wishing this evening, sighs, quite used to his brother’s tendency to turn to him for entertainment. Dancing in front of the Uchiha isn’t the worst idea he’s had: dancing is based on body control, which is also the base of virtually every form of fighting, and showing off a reminder that they are _very_ good fighters isn’t uncalled for, even in peace. “You might have to be more specific.”

“The glowy one!”

Tobirama snorts. Lucky for his brother, he knows which one he means, and as it happens that one demonstrates not only muscle control but chakra control, so – fine. He stands up.

Someone starts up a drum beat that he can dance to, and it’s easy enough to summon the liquid from the ground: there’s enough water in it that he can manipulate it with ease, but it’s not just water. Tobirama can’t help the way his lips curl back into a grin when he sees the Uchiha clan’s faces as he lights the gasoline on fire with a crackle of raiton and dances inside the swirling river of flames.


	77. Natural

**Natural**

Fic summary: There’s nothing more annoying that being “invited” to stay an extra few weeks at the daimyo’s palace, purportedly as a guest but actually as a hostage, except maybe being kept hostage and roommates with your traditional enemy.

“Wow,” Izuna says. “They really -? Wow.”

“I think the goal is for us to kill each other,” Tobirama says. “Which, you know, I’m suddenly disinclined to do for the first time in my life.”

“Fuck the bastards,” Izuna agrees wholeheartedly. “What’s your plan on surviving this? Staying in our corners and not talking?” That would only work for so long.

“…I have alcohol.”

“You really are the genius people sometimes say you are,” Izuna says, and he’s joking, of course, but it turns out Tobirama brought an entire scroll with enough sake for them to get and remain drunk for the next two weeks so maybe he really is.

“My brother has a very good metabolism,” Tobirama explains when Izuna looks at him questioningly. “ _Very_ good. And it’s rude to drink your host dry just because my brother wants to get blazing drunk and needs a few barrels to do so. I’ve taken to carting around this scroll everywhere I go.”

“Have you considered that he might be an alcoholic?” Izuna asks. “Mine certainly shows signs of it.”

“We must never let them drink together,” Tobirama says at once. “Last time they came up with peace: who knows what it’ll be this time? World domination?”

Izuna sniggers. “I love that you think those are the only two options here. You’re not wrong, it’s just funny. Are these demarcated differently?”

“Different types of liquor. No, don’t take the one with the yellow top; that’s Hashirama’s preferred blend. Regular humans can’t consume it and live.”

Izuna wonders if that’s a challenge.

“It’s wood vodka,” Tobirama clarifies.

Izuna very quickly puts the bottle down. “Doesn’t that make you turn blue? And die?”

“Like I said - a _very_ good metabolism. Here, take this one - a very nice plum.”

“Don’t mind if I do.”

There’s absolutely no way this is going to go badly.


	78. Demons

**Demons**

Fic summary: Tobirama abandoned the Edo Tensei when he realized it didn’t work right. But that doesn’t mean he abandoned his goals. He wants his brothers back, no matter what, and if he can’t get them back as they were, he’ll get them back another way.

Reincarnation.

He sets up the entire Academy system as an excuse to take them as his students - it’s not quite the same as being a brother, but it’s close, and he’ll take what he can get.

He wonders sometimes if he should tell Madara that his brother lives again - but if the Uchiha can’t see Izuna’s merits just because he wasn’t born the son of the clan leader this time, they don’t deserve Kagami.


	79. Believer

**Believer**

Fic summary: Tobirama believes in his brother: wildly, passionately, blindly. He does not always understand what it is his brother so desperately seeks to do, but he trusts him, he loves him, he will do anything for him.

“Kill yourself, or your brother!” Madara cries, maddened.

“Anija, will you kill me?” Tobirama asks. He is not afraid. His hand is at his sword: he is eager to give this, too, if it means his brother’s dreams will be fulfilled. Far better, he thinks, that he die than watch his brother kill himself. "Or would you like me to do it? I don’t mind.“

Madara is staring at Tobirama, incredulous; before, he hadn’t had eyes for anyone but Hashirama. 

"Do you have a preference?” Tobirama asks him directly. “I’d rather slit my throat, if you don’t mind me choosing, but the stomach is acceptable as well if you prefer a samurai’s death. Or do you prefer the chest, to make it equal to Izuna?”

“You’re insane,” Madara says.

“I think the saying goes: it takes one to know one,” Tobirama says dryly. “I don’t believe in your peace, Madara, not any more than Izuna did, but my brother believes. If the only price you’ll accept to wipe out the hatred of Izuna’s blood is my own, it’s only just to let me pay it as the one that shed it. What’s it going to be?”


	80. The Walking Dead

**The Walking Dead**

Fic summary: There’s a world where Hashirama said, “No, Tobirama, don’t. I ban the Edo Tensei entirely.”

This is not that world.

The Edo Tensei doesn’t work quite right, no; it doesn’t do what Tobirama most wants, which is to bring back the dead he loves the most. But once he figures out the basis for bringing a soul back in some form, figures out that it has to be a life for a life, well.

Everything after that’s just a matter of scale.

Mito helps him, once she understands what he’s doing, and she summons the finest of the sealing masters of Uzu to help them. All it takes is one giant battlefield, planned in advance: Hashirama lures them in, his eyes cold and mouth firm as it has been ever since he was betrayed, and while Mito is not normally one for the battlefield she stands by Tobirama’s side to aid him in the work.

“Now, I think,” she says at one point. As many of their people have gotten out of range of the seal they made out of iron rings, secretly buried deep in the earth, as possible; the rest are there deliberately, sacrifices to keep the other side from realizing the trap that is about to close in on them.

“Yes,” Tobirama says. “Now.”

The seal activates, and the army they were fighting become an army of the dead.

“Very nice,” Hashirama says, looking critically at his new infantry troops. They were samurai in life, but the battlefield they’d chosen had been a battlefield before, and it was easy enough to pull the shinobi souls back using their death-place as the guiding target. “I see we have a number of Uchiha with us now. Are we worried about loyalty?”

“Not at all,” Mito says. “The control seal we attached to the Edo Tensei is very effective, though obviously I would want to try out the extent of what we can make them do before sending them to kill their own families, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“General obedience is sufficient,” Hashirama says. “We don’t need for them to suffer; I won’t order them to battle against their own blood.”

“Bleeding heart,” Mito teases her husband.

He catches her hand and kisses it, then turns and presses a kiss onto Tobirama’s cheek as well. “Well done, little brother,” he says warmly. “You’ve given me victory.”

“Not yet,” Tobirama says. “I’ve given you numbers. The victory is yet to be seized.”

“Well then, husbands mine,” Mito says with a smile. “Shall we go forth and seize it?”


	81. Crystal Heart

**Crystal Heart**

Fic summary: Tobirama’s body is beautiful. Long and lean, scarred and tattooed, with long twining red lines that form a seal painted on his fair skin as though with a brushstroke.

Hashirama sighs in hopeless envy.

His own skin is the exact opposite: unmarked and dull, not marked by so much as a callus, much less a scar. It’s as soft and tender as it was the day he was born, and while some people think that a marvel, it’s mostly just irritating. Seal tattoos - whether inked or scarred or branded - are _useful_.

“If you really want some, I can do that,” Tobirama says one day. “Seals, I mean. It’s not right for you to have to go without just because you were born to heal.”

“Yes!” Hashirama exclaims. He knows exactly which ones he wants, too; he’s been daydreaming of it for years. “Yes, please. I don’t care what we have to do to get it to work.”

(One day, years later, Madara will faint - actually faint - when he comes across Hashirama with his chest held open with nails, Tobirama kneeling on his lap and carving the newest seal onto the bones of his ribs with a crystal as a stylus, but Hashirama has a pain-muting seal painted in ink on his forehead so he doesn’t see what’s so shocking about it. In another moment, Tobirama will be done; he’ll remove the iron nails holding Hashirama’s flesh apart and hold it back together, and in the moment after that, it’ll all be back the way it was before. It’s _totally_ worth it, and they’re not crazy, no matter what Madara says.)


	82. Soulless

**Soulless**

Fic summary: Mito is much better at binding by Kushina’s time. She’s able to gently open up a space in the girl’s immense chakra reserves, and in that space fits in the whole breadth of power that is a bijuu.

She didn’t have the luxury of such gentleness, herself.

The bijuu had to go somewhere.

“Let me out,” Kurama whispers. His voice may be his own, but the soul that looks out from behind eyes of pure energy is her own. “Don’t do this to her. I know how to love, now; I can do something other than hate. Please.”

Mito, soulless, finishes the seal with a smile.

Trust is for those that know the meaning of the word.


	83. Battlefield

**Battlefield**

Fic summary: Sometimes it feels like Hashirama, who’s never wanted anything but peace, has spent his entire life at war. 

He’s good at it, that’s the worst of it: he kills better than anyone else he knows, better than even Madara. His jutsu is so good at being fatal that it takes serious effort to curb it, and most of the time doing so just makes things worse.

So he kills.

He kills and he kills and he kills again.

The God of Shinobi, they call him - half-joking at first, then seriously, with belief. And when people believe in something, it changes things.

Hashirama never wanted to be a god at all, but to be the god of killers - 

Sometimes he wonders what he did to be punished so.


	84. Running up that hill

**Running up that hill**

Fic summary: Hashirama knows it’s probably a bad idea when he does it, but it’s too tantalizing to resist. What’s the _point_ of being able to see and manipulate soulbonds if he doesn’t use it selfishly sometimes?

He and Madara are best friends, after all; they don’t need a soulbond on top of that. Easy enough to shuffle it around, just a bit, until Madara’s tied to Tobirama and Hashirama’s is tied to Izuna. That way, everyone will fall in love and be happy, and they’ll all be one big family, and it’ll be great.

It doesn’t work like that, of course.

All Hashirama’s done is draw two innocent people into the endless tragedy that is his relationship with Madara.

(Sometimes he lets himself wonder why their brothers didn’t have natural soulbonds of their own. It’s usually the sign of someone who died young, or who lived a life devoted to a concept instead of a person, and there’s no way to tell which destiny he messed around with.)

And then, one day -

“What do you mean, Mito isn’t your soulbond?” Tobirama demands, having stormed into Hashirama’s office. “She just told me - she doesn’t know, of course. But why don’t you just, you know, do your thing on her?”

Hashirama rolls his eyes. “Seems rude to bring a third person into a soulbond without asking the second.”

“You have one? Who?”

Hashirama tells him.

Tobirama goes pale. “Well,” he says after a long moment. “I guess that scraps my plan for the next battle.”

(He ends up going for a non-lethal strike, just to show that he can - but that’s enough to convince the Uchiha that maybe there are benefits to cooperation.)


	85. When we all fall asleep (where do we go)

**When we all fall asleep (where do we go)**

Fic summary: “Oh, I know this place,” Tobirama says, squinting. “We’re in dreamland.”

“Ha, ha, very funny,” Izuna says. “Or are you saying you’ve dreamt this place before?”

He twitches a bit when he says that, because he distinctly recalls having dreamt of this place before himself, and the idea of sharing dreams with _Tobirama_ of all peoples is just right out.

“No,” Tobirama says patiently. “I mean, we’re literally _in dreamland_. It’s the place everyone goes when they dream – it’s like the summoning world, or the Pure Lands. It’s a place.”

“…oh. And you _recognize_ it?”

“I’m a lucid dreamer. Also, altering summoning jutsu into something else is hard, and mistakes get made.”

“You sent yourself into dreamland by accident,” Izuna says with a sigh. Of course Tobirama had. Izuna’s stopped expecting Tobirama to follow the rules set by reality _years_ ago. “How did we both end up here? I thought you were about to stab me with that – teleporting jutsu of yours.”

It _beat the Sharingan_. Izuna would be impressed with his rival if he wasn’t so pissed off.

Tobirama makes a face. “Looks like my hiraishin isn’t quite as done as I thought it was,” he says. “I mean, I did stab you, but I also pulled us both into dreamland at the same time, and injuries don’t last in dreamland.”

“Hn. Truce, then, until we get out of here?”

Tobirama eyes him skeptically. Izuna can’t even really blame him; he’s never liked the idea of any sort of peace with the Senju, opposing even ceasefires.

“You killed me fair and square,” Izuna explains. “Sure, I survived through what is clearly a freak accident – you’re the freak in this situation, in case you missed it – but you still get the honor from it. The least I can do is agree to a truce for now.” He makes a face. “Possibly peace later, assuming your lot is still interested in that. You beat the Sharingan once; I have no doubt you could do it again, and next time it’ll be permanent. So. Truce?”

“Truce,” Tobirama agrees. “Now, the landscape’s all changed, but from what I remember I think the exit is this way…”


	86. ocean eyes

**ocean eyes**

Fic summary: Tobirama is barely old enough to have an elemental affinity, officially, but they’ve known that he’d be suiton-inclined ever since he fell headfirst into the Nakano river and breathed in water as easily as he does air. He only knows one jutsu, the most basic water-summoning, and no others, but it should have been all right: he’s four years old, barely old enough to do courier work, and this was supposed to be something nice and easy and simple to get him used to going outside alone.

The Uchiha child-killers laugh and step on his hands as he sobs. His shoulder hurts very badly from where they drew on him with their kunai, and the only reason he’s still alive is that they’re taking turns kicking him back and forth, amused by how small he is, how pale, how weak: they’re making jokes about the Senju bloodline falling short and starting to produce runts, and making jokes about his parentage.

Tobirama doesn’t have any weapons, and he would lose if he tried to fight with his fists. All he has is water, which loves him, but there’s no water anywhere around. No water except – except –

( _There’s an ocean in every one of us_ , the Uzumaki that taught him his first suiton jutsu said with a booming laugh. _No matter where we go, no matter what, we carry the salt-water within us_.)

There’s blood all over Tobirama’s chest, and the Uchiha’s clothing. Maybe it’ll be enough.

He reaches for the water.

He _pulls_.


	87. It’s all been done before

**It’s all been done before**

Fic summary: “I don’t think he knows,” Hashirama says one day by the river, after Madara has gone home. “I mean, he knows – he knows about the _Senju_ part of it. But he doesn’t know about the other part.”

The first ghost shrugs. He’s always first. _I don’t know what to tell you_ , he says. _Let’s be honest, it’s probably for the best. You wouldn’t have gotten along with my brother_.

_No more would you have gotten along with the one I knew_ , the woman says, rolling her eyes. She’s something like the fifth, if Hashirama has the numbers right. _And I nearly married the bastard. Uchiha! Always stubborn, even to their detriment_.

“Are you going to marry Madara?” Tobirama asks, arms wrapped around knees pulled up to his chest. He can see the ghosts just fine, what with those yokai-eyes of his, and it’s nice not to be the only one who talks to them anymore. It’s the first time in at least four lifetimes that seeing the priors wasn’t a secret Hashirama-who-is-now kept to himself. “You’re not brothers, so you can.”

_I was sworn brothers with mine_ , the third ghost says. _Friendship is a perfectly valid option_.

“I don’t know what we’re going to be yet!” Hashirama says. “We’ve barely started to get to know each other.”

_Enemies_ , the first one sighs. _However you start, somehow you always end up as enemies_.

“Which is why I think we should tell him,” Hashirama says. “Why should I be the only one who knows about the reincarnation cycle? _Tobirama_ knows, and you all said that was weird enough.”

_There hasn’t been a seer in the line before_ , the woman admits. _That’s new_.

“So why not this, too?”

“What if he doesn’t believe you?” Tobirama asks. “No one ever believes me, except for you, and you only believe me because you can see these ones too.”

“I’ll…think of something. It’s better than it taking him by surprise, don’t you think?”

_Worth a shot_ , the first says. Ashura, he said his name was. _But then again, isn’t everything_?


	88. Say my name

**Say my name**

Fic summary: “Hashirama,” Hashirama says encouragingly. “ _Hashirama_.”

“Rama,” his brother says. He’s very small still, with big red eyes that don’t quite focus and a soft halo of white fuzz, but he’s trying very hard. “ _Sh’rma_.”

“Oooh, very good! You’re almost there! One more time: _Hashirama_.”

“Hashirama!”

Hashirama jumps with a squeak. His father is standing at the door, frowning at him. “What are you doing? You should be training, not playing with the baby.”

“I’m teaching him to say my name!”

“He’s too young to be able to understand you,” Butsuma says dismissively. “It’s all just nonsensical babble. Leave him be and go train already. An infant is not going to keep you alive in a battlefield.”

Hashirama nods, sighing once his father has left the room and starting to gather up his practice sword and armor. He doesn’t mind training, not really, but not _all the time_. Sometimes it makes him feel like his father doesn’t see him as a person, but only as the next link in a chain meant to defeat their enemies.

“Si,” Tobirama burbles. “Asi. Asima. _Hashirama_.”

Hashirama spins around, training entirely forgotten. “You said my name! Tobirama, you said my name!”

Tobirama beams and holds out his hands, somehow able to identify where Hashirama was despite the fact that the medics had all agreed that those red eyes were probably near blind.

Hashirama picks him up immediately and spins him around to celebrate.

It’s the first time he picks his brother over his duties to his clan, but it’s far from the last.


	89. Run

**Run**

Fic summary: “Why are you _here_?” Kagami hisses. “You can’t be here! It’s a Run!”

Tobirama blinks at him. “…a what?”

“You have to go,” Kagami insists, pushing at him. “If you’re here, that means you’re a participant. And since you’re not an Uchiha, you can’t be a runner, and if you can’t be a runner, that means the only thing you can be is _Caught_.”

Tobirama doesn’t like the sound of the very obvious capital letter there. And, fine, he doesn’t actually _need_ to talk to Madara tonight – well, he kind of does, it’s extremely urgent and possibly crucial to the survival of their village, but Kagami is clearly very upset about this and he could always (ugh) get up before dawn and catch Madara then. Though there is one thing he wants to be clear about. “You do know I’m the fastest shinobi in the village, right? There isn’t any Uchiha that could catch me even if they tried.”

Kagami’s eyes go wide. “Oh boy,” he says. “ _Now_ you’ve done it.”

“Done what?”

“You’ve issued a challenge, and that means you’re definitely part of the Run now. Good luck not getting caught, sensei!”

Tobirama’s about to ask for more details, but his sensor abilities – never silent – catch on the multiple Sharingans now aimed straight at him, coming straight at him, and self-preservation instincts overtake logic.


	90. Hiraishin

**Hiraishin**

Fic Summary: When the idea first came to Tobirama, he was lying on the roof and staring up into a thunderstorm. He likes thunderstorms, and they like him, and it’s only through watching the lightning strike the earth time and time again that it occurs to him to wonder how the lightning always hits its target. He’d already been playing with the idea of bending space and time, exploring the fascinating world of summoning in an effort to see if he can find a way to go faster, but this – this would be better than going faster.

This would be _instantaneous_.

Time and space are tricky things, though, and the basis of the jutsu he creates is a summoning, a way to use the path between the universes as a walkway. A summoning connects the summoning world to theirs; an error could send you somewhere else entirely: the world of the dead, perhaps, or that of the gods. It’s not something to make mistakes on.

The first time Tobirama tries the jutsu, he disappears and reappears a moment later.

He staggers.

He stands. He looks around. He looks – relieved.

He doesn’t tell anyone exactly how long, from his perspective, he’d been gone.

He doesn’t tell anyone where he was during that time.

He doesn’t tell anyone what he became.

The next time Tobirama tries the jutsu, it works just fine.

He calls it the Flying Thunder God.

(No one gets the joke, of course, but then again, Tobirama’s never wanted worshippers.)


	91. Bad Romance

**Bad Romance**

Fic summary: “Have you considered that – just maybe – we’re really bad at this romance thing?” Madara asks.

“It feels incredibly weird,” Hashirama agrees. “Which isn’t to say I don’t want to be having lots of sex with you, because I do, but what even _is_ the point of dating? We spend all day together _anyway_.”

“Surprises tend not to work really well for shinobi, anyway, even if they’re meant well.”

“And it’s not like you actually like flowers. It doesn’t even take me any effort to get them, so what’s even the point?”

“Exactly! There’s absolutely no reason for us to be an official couple. I certainly can’t think of any, can you? Can anyone?”

“Free dessert at restaurants when you fake-propose,” Tobirama, long-suffering as ever, says from bent over his paperwork the next desk over.

“…on second thought, let’s give this whole romance thing another try, shall we?”


	92. Lipstick Stains, Bloodstained Teeth

**Lipstick Stains, Bloodstained Teeth**

Fic summary: The samurai lord in charge of tithes has a mistress. Foreign, people say wisely – she’s never seen standing, her legs probably too weak, but she’s supposedly drop-dead gorgeous under that veil. She’s certainly ridiculously graceful, even Madara can see that: every motion calculated, poised, beautiful.

She also represents the best chance Madara has to getting at the paranoid man.

He’s already planned for at least five different reactions from her (everything from horrified but open to bribery to horrified and screaming) that he’s not actually expecting what happens when he comes in through the window.

“About time,” Tobirama says. The veil is pushed back, but his face is still painted like a geisha, and he stands up easily as ever – he must have remained sitting to hide his height. “I killed him three hours ago. I trust you have an exit route planned..?”


End file.
